School Aggression and Dispositional Aggression among Middle School Boys

Abstract

We examined the relationship between dispositional (trait) aggression and administrative reports of school aggression among 100 adolescent male participants from an urban middle school. Aggression was fairly common among the sample; 58 boys had a record of school aggression, and many of those were repeat offenders. Our hypothesis that those higher in dispositional aggression would have more records of aggression at school was supported. Dispositional aggression was significantly, positively correlated with verbal and physical aggression at school. Regression analyses indicated that dispositional aggression accounted for a substantial amount of the variance in administrative reports of school aggression. Two other factors, family income and age, accounted for a minimal amount of the variance in school aggression.