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Abstract
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In study 1, 8- and 11-year-old girls and boys (N = 110) were interviewed individually and asked about why children in general, and themselves in particular, fight with fellow pupils in the playground. A substantial proportion of children (51 per cent) reported having had at least one aggressive fight during the previous year. The most common reasons for children resorting to fighting were retaliations to teasing, retaliations to unprovoked assaults, disagreements over aspects of the game that was being played, because another child was disliked, and to settle dominance disputes. In study 2, a direct observational methodology was employed to examine how often children of these ages engage in aggressive fighting, how long fights last, and their proximate causes. Among the younger pupils, a large proportion of fights (43.3 per cent) had no obvious immediate cause to an adult observer, but others were caused when a playful assault received an aggressive retaliation (15.4 per cent), and by disputes over space in the playground (13.5 per cent). Among the 11-year-old pupils, a smaller percentage of fights (14.8 per cent) had no obvious immediate cause. The two most common causes of fighting at this age were aggressive retaliations to teasing (25.9 per cent) and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt (18.5 per cent). In study 3, in situ interviews were combined with direct playground observations in order to reveal participants' views (or onlookers' views if participants were not available to be interviewed) about the causes of fights. Again, the most common causes of fighting were disputes over some aspect of the game being played (33.3 per cent), aggressive retaliations to teasing (25.0 per cent), disagreements over possession of toys/equipment (14.6 per cent), and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt (14.6 per cent). Age and sex differences are reported in some measures across all three studies. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at improving children's experiences of life on the school playground.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Boulton was to examine the prevalence of fighting and aggression on primary school playgrounds, who is involved in these disputes, and what the causes of disputes are.
METHODOLOGY:
The research was divided into three separate studies, each employing different methodologies. Study 1 was non-experimental in design and consisted solely of in-depth interviews with a nonprobability sample. The subjects in this sample were 110 children from two urban middle schools in England. One class of 8-year-olds and one class of 11-year-olds from each school participated, with a total of 26 8-year-old girls, 24 8-year-old boys, 16 11-year-old girls, and 44 11-year-old boys. The head teacher at each school chose the classes that were included in the study, but did not know the purpose of the research. In the interviews, children were asked three questions by the researcher: "Have you ever had a fight in the school playground in the last year?," "Why did you fight?, and "Why do children fight?"
Study 2 used 86 of the students from the original sample of 110 children. This study employed a quasi-experimental, cross- sectional design and was an attempt by researchers to back up the self-report information given by the students in Study 1. In Study 2, researchers observed each child for the entire time they spent on a playground during a forty minute long recess. The researcher followed the child of the day and dictated all of his/her actions on a tape recorder. From each transcript, discrete episodes of aggressive fighting were identified. Fighting actions were considered to be playful or aggressive on the basis of the following criteria: 1) characteristics of physical action (strength of blow, kick, etc); 2) the presence or absence of signs of distress or annoyance by the recipient; and 3) the presence or absence of signs of regret by the perpetrators of the injury/distress. Fighting behaviors were judged as playful if they did not involve powerful blows, etc. or if the offender showed signs that they were accidental or that they were sorry. Observers recorded behavior using this procedure, while at the same time, another observer recorded the child on videotape. Later, the audio tape and the video tape were compared in ten second intervals to ensure observer reliability. Using Cohen's kappa, the reliability was found to be .93, indicating a high level of agreement between observers.
Study 3 was also non-experimental in design. Observers again watched the students at recess, however in this portion of the study, there were no formal set of participants; all students at recess at a third urban middle school were available for observation. The authors used behavior contingent or scan sampling, wherein the children selected for the sample were those the researcher observed acting out certain behaviors (aggressive fighting). Researchers approached children when the aggressive or violent episode was over (when 30 seconds had gone by without fighting). The observer then carried out a short interview with either or both of the participants to ascertain the cause of the dispute. Overall, 50 hours of observation were made.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
In Study 1, just over half of the students reported that they had engaged in an aggressive fight in the past year, with a significantly higher number of boys than girls reporting this behavior. The author suggested these findings be interpreted cautiously for boys may be likely to over-report while girls may be likely to under-report their fighting. These fights most commonly arose from teasing, being hit or bullied for no good reason, disagreements over some aspect of a game that was being played, and over the possession of an object.
In Study 2, the researcher found that for both males and females, the younger students were more likely to be involved in fights which had no apparent cause. Younger boys were more likely to fight over playground space and to retaliate aggressively to a playful assault. The most common causes of fights for the 11-year-old students were retaliation to teasing and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt.
In Study 3, 61 episodes of fighting were observed. Based on the interviews which followed 48 of these episodes, the researcher ascertained that the most common causes of fighting were disputes over the rules of a game (33.3%), teasing (25%), disputes over possession of toys/equipment (14.6%), aggressive retaliations to accidental injuries/hurt (14.6%), and disputes over space (4.2%).
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
In light of the high rate of fighting in response to teasing, the author suggested that parents and teachers rethink their attitude that teasing is harmless and that children should cope with it on their own. These teasing episodes often perpetuated gender inequality, and thus should be looked at by parents and teachers with this in mind as well. The author suggests that researchers need to pay more attention to the role of these interactions in children's development and in their future interactions with peers. He suggested that future research use a variety of methodologies to study the problem and that studies be directed at the beneficial aspects of playground fighting and the factors that escalate a playground fight into something serious.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
England
Late Childhood
Child Aggression
Child Offender
Child Violence
Child Female
Child Male
Male Aggression
Male Offender
Male Violence
Female Aggression
Female Offender
Female Violence
Fighting Behavior
Child Behavior
Female Behavior
Male Behavior
Behavior Causes
Aggression Causes
Elementary School Student
School Violence
Countries Other Than USA
Age Differences
Gender Differences
Language: en |