This article offers a perspective on adolescents' experiences of aggression in a secondary
school, with a focus on the manifestation, contributing factors, consequences, and
learners' opinions on aggression. An inductive qualitative research approach was chosen,
where learners wrote about their experiences and participated in focused semi-structured
interviews. Central themes were derived by means of thematic content analysis. The
results revealed that a substantial number of learners experienced negative feelings about
aggression at school and that aggression was related to individual characteristics, the
adolescent's developmental stage, socialisation, status, competition, home environment,
prior experiences, learnt behaviour and the effect of the media and music. Aggression
was present among all genders. ages and cultures in school. It seemed to have a higher
prevalence among boys, but was also significantly present among girls. Physical and
emotional bullying had a high prevalence. which showed that bullying is problematic at
schools. Passive aggression was mostly present in the form of oppositional behaviour
towards authorities at school and educators are often verbally abused and ignored by
learners, but their classrooms are also damaged. Individual characteristics, interpersonal
relationships, multicultural interaction and a lack of sufficient social skills contributed
towards many acts of aggression. Aggression was prominent in the reciprocal
relationships between adolescents and their social environment. Being part of a group and
forming a social identity are very important. Confiding in groups may expose learners to
peer pressure, which may lead to activities and behaviour that are aggressive in nature.
There were reports of discrimination and it seemed that learners get along better with
others who share an equal status. This may possibly explain why aggression seemed less
between white English-speaking and black English-learners, while it was more common between white Afrikaans and white/black English-speaking learners. Increased social
contact between members of different social groups could reduce prejudice if these
persons have an equal status. Exposure to aggression had emotional consequences, and
some learners were prone to feelings of anger, fear, depression, being controlled and a
loss of self-content. Behavioural responses included retaliation, pacifism, vandalism and
suicide. Exposure to aggression (directly and indirectly) provoked several responses.
These responses may be emotional or behavioural in nature. Emotions such as fear and
anger and feeling overwhelmed, depressed and helpless may be elicited in response to
aggression. Some learners may retaliate towards an aggressive incident through physical
or verbal behaviour; others may withdraw and avoid social interactions. Learners may
direct their aggression towards others (people and objects) or themselves. In the case of
the latter, it may lead to depression, self-harm or even suicide. No single factor propels an
adolescent to act aggressively. Instead, the causes of such behaviour are complex and
multifaceted. Most participants in this research experienced aggression at school as
unhealthy. Aggression may have emotional and behavioural consequences such as
disruption, discomfort and disturbance of normal functioning. Although aggression
seemed relatively under control at this particular school, there are signs of an increase in
aggression and in the severity of some of the incidents, and of the possibility of
desensitisation towards aggression, with the agonising possibility that aggression is
serving as a form of entertainment for some learners. The need for learner involvement,
school guidance programmes and life-skill training was prominent, accompanied by the
need for school counsellors to assist in the management of aggression. Teachers must
have better knowledge of the adolescent developmental phase so that they could
understand and identify behavioural problems among learners. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1395 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Ludick, Quintin |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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