Citation

Carraro A, Gobbi E, Moè A. J. Adolesc. 2014; 37(8): 1303-1307.

Affiliation

Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy. Electronic address: angelica.moe@unipd.it.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.09.009

PMID

25299437

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of play fighting on aggressive behaviors. It was hypothesized that the teaching of play fighting during physical education lessons could reduce self-reported aggression in a group of adolescents to a greater extent than playing volleyball (a low physical contact activity). Participants were 210 young adolescents (mean age = 13.27, SD = 0.48 years) from 10 classrooms that were randomly assigned to an 8-lesson play fighting session or to traditional volleyball lessons. They filled in the 12-item short version of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ-12) pre- and post-interventions. The play fighting group showed a significant reduction in all the four subscales of the AQ-12 (Cohen d ranging from 0.61 to 0.67), while participants in the volleyball group did not.

RESULTS suggest that play fighting might provide useful contents in a physical education curriculum, with possible reduction in aggressive behavior.

Language: en