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Prevalence of Aggression among School-Going Adolescents in India: A Review

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Review Article
Prevalence of Aggression among School-
Mukesh Kumar1,
Meenakshi Bhilwar2, Going Adolescents in India: A Review Study
Richa Kapoor3,
Priyanka Sharma4, Abstract
Pragyan Parija5
1,4,5 2 Introduction: Adolescence is a time to develop knowledge and skills, learn to
PG Student, Senior
3
Resident, Professor, Dept
manage emotions and acquire attributes and abilities that will be important for
of Community Medicine, enjoying the adolescent years and assuming adult roles. Society has seen an increase
VMMC & Safdarjung in the incidents of aggression/violence among youth and adolescents. Boys are
Hospital, New Delhi. found to be more aggressive than girls.
Correspondence to:
Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Methods: Review of literature was done with the help of search engines like Pub
VMMC & Safdarjung Med and Google Scholar which were searched for relevant articles published in the
Hospital, New Delhi. last 10 years.
E-mail Id: goswami.r.muk
Results: Among the studies, which met the inclusion criteria, eight were conducted
esh@gmail.com
in India and one in other countries. The level of aggression was found to be high
among adolescents. It ranged from 17.7% overall to 66.5% for physical aggression.
Boys were found to be more physically aggressive while girls were more verbally
aggressive.

Conclusions: The studies show that there is high prevalence of aggression among
adolescents and boys are more aggressive than girls. However, girls show high
indirect aggression at high-year level.

Keywords: Aggression, Adolescents, School-going, Buss and Perry, Review.

Background
Adolescence is a period of life with specific health and developmental needs and
rights. It is also a time to develop knowledge and skills, learn to manage emotions
and relationships, and acquire attributes and abilities that will be important for
enjoying the adolescent years and assuming adult roles.1

Age is a convenient way to define adolescence. The WHO defines adolescence from
age 10 to 19 years.2 Investing in the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents now can break
entrenched cycles of poverty and inequity, highlights UNICEF in its 2011 State of the
World’s Children report. India is home to more than 243 million adolescents, who
account for a quarter of the country’s population.2

Society has seen an increase in the incidents of aggression/violence among youth.3

Aggression is the delivery of an aversive stimulus from one person to another, with
intent to harm and with an expectation of causing such harm, when the other
How to cite this article: person is motivated to escape or avoid the stimulus.4 Adolescence is the phase when
Kumar M, Bhilwar M,
Kapoor R et al. Prevalence
individuals have multiple things in their mind and feel immense energy in
of Aggression among themselves which they need to utilize or express in some way. Many a time, this
School-Going Adolescents expression is not direct, and comes out in the form of aggression.
in India: A Review Study.
Ind J Youth Adol Health A few studies have been done in the past to highlight the presence of aggression
2016; 3(4): 39-47. among adolescents. Some studies have shown association of aggression among
youth and adolescents with reported work pressure, substance use, violent
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© ADR Journals 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Kumar M et al.
activities, family disturbance, road rage, mood
disturbance, psychological problems and peer
relationships.5-9 Boys were found to be more
physically and verbally aggressive than girls, but girls
used more indirect aggression at the higher-year
level.10,11
Though it is clear that aggression or aggressive
behavior in early life is a predictor of various
behavioral disorders in individuals, not much of
literature is available on aggressive behavior among
adolescents especially in north India.
There is paucity on review of the literature available.
So this review specifically focused upon the available
literature in context to the prevalence of aggression
and sex differences among adolescents.
Methods
Data Sources and Search Strategy
Articles published in English language during the last
10 years were included in the review.
Databases like PubMed and Google Scholar were
searched for the relevant literature keeping in mind
all the criteria for the research. Key words used were
Adolescents, Aggressive behavior, School-going, India,
Buss and Perry, Prevalence, Sex and Factors.
Main focus was kept on studies conducted in India.
However, few studies conducted in other countries
were also considered provided they were conducted
in similar study subjects and used similar methods as
in majority of the studies.
Study Selection and Inclusion Criteria
Articles included had study subjects of adolescent
population. Here it was specifically kept in mind that
the research, which was conducted using similar scale
or a standard scale to measure aggression, was taken
into consideration.
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Ind. J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4)
So, all possible titles and their abstracts were
reviewed. Among these, the papers which were
selected were reviewed fully.
Inclusion Criteria
• Articles published in English language during the
last 10 years.
• Studies having adolescent population as study
participants.
• Studies using Buss and Perry scale or similar scale
to measure aggression.
• Studies taking into consideration prevalence of
aggression and sex differences among study
participants.
Exclusion Criteria
• Studies in which mixed population (adults as well
as adolescents) was taken into consideration.
Results
A total of 25 papers were found relevant to the search
results, which were later screened on the basis of
criteria previously mentioned. Among these papers, 9
papers were found to be suitable for the present
review.
Eight papers were describing studies conducted in
India while one had been conducted in other
countries.
Aggression has been measured among adolescents
using a standard tool in most of the studies. The most
commonly used tool for such a measurement among
the reviewed studies comes out to be Buss & Perry
aggression questionnaire (BPAQ).12 It is a 29-point
instrument assessing the response on a 5-pointer
Likert scale. Five out of nine studies reviewed here
have used this tool for measurement of aggression
and studying its various aspects.
A brief account of these studies is given in Table
1.(which is given in a article end)
40
Ind. J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4)
Data Extraction
Articles identified over the data sources, n=25
Titles screened after duplicates were removed, n= 24
Abstracts screened, n=18
Full text articles assessed, n=12
Studies included in the study, n=9
Figure 1.Flow Chart Depicting Selection of Study Articles
Discussion
Although no study has used any single definition of
aggression, various definitions explaining various
aspects of aggression have been given in various
studies. These definitions do give a sense of meaning
of aggression but absence of exact definition does
hamper the comparative effect among various
studies.
Aggression, which is defined as delivery of an aversive
stimulus from one person to another, with intent to
harm is found to be high among school-going
adolescents.
Prevalence of Aggression
Prevalence ranges from 17.7% of the study population
showing high mean score on Buss and Perry scale as
given in the study by Sharma and Marimuthu,3 while
in another study by Dutt et al., it rose to 66.5%
41
Kumar M et al.
Titles excluded as they did not
fit inclusion criteria, n=6
Abstracts excluded as they did
not fit inclusion criteria, n=6
Articles excluded, n=3
Reason: 2 studies had adult
population also as study
participants, 1 study did not
comment on sex differences
specifically for physical aggression. It was also high
(56.8%) for verbal aggression among sample
population in the same study. In this study, it was also
seen that with increasing age/class, physical direct
active aggression decreased while physical indirect
passive aggression increased.13
Similar results were obtained in studies using different
methods to measure aggression. In studies conducted
by various researchers also, it has been seen that
adolescent population scores high on various
modalities to measure aggression.14-16
It was observed in the study by Sharma et al. that
many study participants (13.5%) had threatened or
injured someone with some weapon in the last 12
months.17 This corresponds to the findings of higher
prevalence of aggression among adolescent
population in other studies.
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Kumar M et al.
It was also seen in study by Sharma and Marimuthu
that prevalence of aggression was higher among
younger adolescents.3 Contradictory findings were
given by Datta and Firdoush in their report, which
says that total aggression was higher among older
adolescents, which also states that specifically for
physical aggression younger adolescents scored
higher while other types of aggression were found to
be higher among older age groups.14
Sex Differences
In a study by Dutt et al., it was seen that prevalence of
physical aggression was much more among boys as
compared to girls. For verbal aggression, more girls
were found to have scored high on the scale than
boys. Verbal indirect aggression was also more
common among girls while boys were more liable to
physical aggression.13
Similar findings were seen in the study by Sharma and
Marimuthu where males had high mean score on
aggression,3 but contrary to the study results of Dutt
et al. where males scored higher on verbal aggression,
also scoring high on physical aggression which was
similar to results of study by Shaheen and Jahan, and
Yavuzer.13,18,19 Male participants scored high on anger
scale too.
Boys were also involved in interpersonal violence
more than girls as seen in one of the studies by
Sharma et al. which also showed that gender was
important correlate for interpersonal violence.17
A study by Puhan et al. has also thrown light over
relationship of aggression and aspiration levels.
Although there was no overall difference in the
aggression and aspiration levels of students of
different high schools but it found that there was a
positive relationship between aggression and
aspiration levels of girls of government schools and
boys of private schools.15 No other study has
described such similar relationship among the study
population.
Such a unique finding was also given in a study by
Shahzad et al., showing higher the level of emotional
intelligence the lesser is the risk of physical
aggression.20
Looking into the findings of all studies given here it
was seen that adolescents are having high levels of
aggression among themselves, with boys being more
physically aggressive and girls scoring high on verbal
aggression. Not all studies commented upon about
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Ind. J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4)
any specific age group for adolescents scoring high on
aggression scale but those which commented upon
this also gave contradictory statements.
Limitations
This review was limited to a very few studies and
limited search of the selected database. Among the
literature reviewed here too, not every aspect of
various studies was compared as factors like different
study population, multiple study tools and different
conditions of the study limited the scope of the
review.
No single clear definition of the term aggression was
used in studies making the context of various studies
different.
Even where similar tools for aggression measurement
were used, not all components of aggression were
measured in every study, thus limiting the
comparison.
Conclusion
Aggression is found to be high among school-going
adolescents and particularly among young
adolescents, especially physical aggression. It is higher
among boys as compared to girls.
A need for identification of various factors among
adolescents for such high level of aggression is felt
and management of aggression depending upon the
inciting factor is to be done as adolescents form a
formidable number of our society and such a rise in
their aggressive behavior is needed to be looked into
for the betterment of future of our nation.
References
1. World Health Organization: Maternal, newborn
child and adolescent health. Available from
http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/t
opics/adolescence/development/en/. [Last access
ed on Aug 7, 2016].
2. The UNICEF Press release: Investing in
adolescents can break cycles of poverty and
inequity. Available from http://unicef.in/Press
Releases/87/Adolescence-An-Age-ofOpportunity#
sthash.aFKZWnIP.dpuf [Last accessed on Aug 7,
2016].
3. Sharma MK, Marimuthu P. Prevalence and
psychosocial factors of aggression among youth.
Indian J Psychol Med 2014; 36: 48-53.
4. Russell G Geen. Human Aggression. 2nd edn.
Philedelphia: Open University Press 1999: 3.
42
Ind. J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4)
5. Bowker JC, Ostrovi JM, Raja R. Ralational and
overt aggression in urban India. Int J Behav Dev
2012; 36: 107-16.
6. Saini S, Singh J. Gender differences in relational
aggression and psychological problems in
romantic relationships among youths. J Indian
Acad Appl Psychol 2008; 34: 279-86.
7. Deb S, Modak S. Prevalence of violence against
children in Tripura and its relationship with socio-
economic factors. J Inj Violence Res 2010; 2: 5-18.
8. Khatri P, Kupersmidt JB. Aggression, peer
victimisation and social relationship among Indian
youth. Int J Behav Dev 2003; 27: 87-95.
9. Khatri P. Aggression, peer victimisation and social
relationship among rural Indian youth. Diss Abstr
Int 1997; 57: 6652B.
10. Khatri P, Kupersmidt JB. Aggression, peer
victimisation, and social relationships among
Indian youth. Int J Behav Dev 2003; 27: 87-95.
11. Owensa LD, MacMullina CE. Gender differences in
aggression in children and adolescents in South
Australian schools. Int J Adolesc Youth 1995; 6:
21-35.
12. Buss AH, Perry M. The aggression questionnaire.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1992;
63: 452-59.
13. Dutt D, Pandey GK, Pal D et al. Magnitude, types
and sex differentials of aggressive behaviour
among school children in a rural area of west
Bengal. Indian J Community Med 2013; 38(2):
109-13.
43
Kumar M et al.
14. Datta PP, Firdoush KA. Association of aggression
with sociodemographic characteristics: a cross
sectional study among rural adolescents. Natl J
Med Res 2012; 2(4): 442-47.
15. Puhan RR, Dash L, Malla L. A comparative study of
the aggression and aspiration of adolescents
studying in government and private high schools
of Odisha. European Academic Research 2014;
I(12): 5739-60.
16. Talukdar RR, Deka RS. A study on aggression level
among adolescents. Int J Soc Sci Humanit Res
2014; 2(4): 91-94.
17. Sharma R, Grover VL, Chaturvedi S. Risk behaviors
related to inter-personal violence among school
and college-going adolescents in south Delhi.
Indian J Community Med 2008; 33(2): 85-88.
18. Shaheen F, Jahan M. Role of self-esteem in
development of aggressive behavior among
adolescent. International Journal of Education
and Psychological Research 2014; 3(4): 54-57.
19. Yavuzer Y. Investigation of relationship between
aggression and sociometric popularity in
adolescents. Educational Sciences: Theory &
Practice 2013; 13(2): 775-80.
20. Shahzad S, Begum N, Khan A. Understanding
emotions in adolescents: Linkage of trait
emotional intelligence with aggression. Asian
Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities 2013;
2(3): 386-94.
Date of Submission: 14th Oct. 2016
Date of Acceptance: 22th Nov. 2016
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Kumar M et al. . J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4)
Author(s) Year of Study setting/ Type of Population Sample Data collection Key findings
study Location study studied size method (s)
(population
characteristics)
Sharma MK, 2014 Bangalore, Cross- Population of age 5476 Self-administered 17.7% of the youth has high mean aggression score
Marimuthu Jammu, sectional group 15-26 questionnaire with on buss &perry
P Indore, Kerala, study years, male and anger data sheet, aggression scale.
Rajasthan, female both. clinical anger scale Males have high mean score on aggression and
Sikkim, and and buss &perry experienced more verbal aggression, physical
Delhi aggression aggression and anger.
questionnaire. Younger age group (16-19 years) experienced more
aggression.
The risk factors were identified as physical abuse in
childhood, substanceabuse such as alcohol and
tobacco, negative peer influence, family violence,
academic disturbance, psychological problems,
negative childhood experience and TV
and media.
DebashisDu 2009 Anandnagar Cross- Children of 338 A pre designed, 66.5 % of the children were physically aggressive in
tt et al High School, sectional classes VII to IX anonymous, self- the previous month: Boys 75.8%, girls 58.2% (P=
Singur village, study administered 0.001).
West Bengal questionnaire with 56.8% were verbally aggressive: Boys 55.2%, girls
buss &perry 61% (P=0.97).
aggression Verbal indirect aggression was more common
questionnaire among girls (55.3%) than among boys (22.3%) (P=
indicating types of 0.000).
aggressive Boys (60.2%) were more liable to physical
behavior by aggression as compared to girls (9%) (P= 0.000).
students in Girls were more argumentative (63.8%) and
previous month disagreeing (41.8%) compared with boys (55.2%)
and (33.5%) with P= 0.0134 and 0.145 respectively.

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Ind. J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4) Kumar M et al.

With increasing age/class, physical direct active

aggression decreased while physical indirect
passive aggression increased.
Datta PP, 2011 Ramnagar, Cross- Adolescents aged 258 Pre designed, pre A high proportion of adolescents scored very high
Firdoush KA Jalapara, sectional 15 to 19 years tested, semi on DIAS scale.
Rasulpur study structured Total aggression score was significantly higher
villages of questionnaire among older adolescents (18-19 years of age),
Singur block, collecting socio- among males, among adolescents belonging to
Hooghly (West demographic lower income groups and whose mothers were
Bengal) information and working.
DIAS for data Physical aggression score was significantly higher in
collection younger adolescents, but other types of aggression
were found to be significantly higher among older
group.
Puhan RR, 2014 Jajpur, Descripti High school 600 Questionnaire It was found that the adolescents studying in
Dash L, Kendrapara, ve students from having Level of different high schools do not differ in their
Malla L Balasore, research government and Aspiration aggression and aspiration level.
Bhadrak and private schools of Measure by Dr. There is positive relationship between aggression
Cuttack selected districts Mahesh Bhargava and aspiration of adolescent girls of
(Orrissa) and Late Prof. M.A. governmentschools and adolescent boys studying
Shah with GDS, in private. schools.
ADS and NTRS There is a negative relationship between
scores and aggression and aspiration level of adolescent boys
Aggression Scale (A of government schools and girls of private schools.
scale) developed
by KM Roma Pal
and Mrs. Tasneem
Naqvi.
Talukdar 2014 Guwahati and Descripti Adolescents aged 60 Self-administered A significant difference in aggression among male
RR, Deka RS Sarthebari ve between 14-16 questionnaire and female adolescents was observed.
research years having Aggression The male adolescents are more aggressive than

45 ISSN: 2349-2880
Kumar M et al. . J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4)

scale developed by female.

Dr. R.L. Bharadwaj No significant difference in aggression among
adolescents from urban and rural area.
Female adolescents consider necessary to obey the
rules of society than male.
Many of female adolescents don’t like to watch
actions of violence in the programs of T.V.
Sharma R, 2008 Three schools Cross- Adolescents aged 550 Pre-tested, semi- 65 (11.8%) study participants reported having
Grover VL, and two sectional 14-19 years open-ended, self- carried a weapon in past 30 days.
Chaturvedi colleges in study administered 74 (13.5%) respondents had threatened or injured
S South Delhi questionnaire someone with a weapon in past 12 months.
49.1% of boys reported being involved in a physical
fight in past 12 months.
Males were involved significantly more in
interpersonal violence.
67.5% of the adolescents working part time were
more likely at risk than not working (48.5%).
Gender, lower age, number of close friends, having
seen role models smoke/drink and residing in
resettlement colonies, slums or villages were
significant correlates of interpersonal violence in
logistic regression analysis.
Shaheen F, 2014 Aligarh (Uttar Cross- Senior secondary 200 Questionnaire There was significant negative correlation between
Jahan M Pradesh) sectional school students having RSE and self-esteem and aggression.
study Buss &perry In gender differences, it was found that male
aggression students scored significantly higher on self-esteem
questionnaire. in comparison to female students.
It was also found that male students scored
significantly higher on different dimensions of
aggression (i.e. physical, verbal, anger and
hostility) in comparison to female students.

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 Ind. J. Youth Adol. Health 2016; 3(4) Kumar M et al.
View publication stats

Yavuzer Y 2013 20 elementary Cross- Randomly 524 Self-administered Male adolescent’s physical aggression scores are
schools of sectional selected students questionnaire higher compared to the girls and female
Nigde (Turkey) study of 8th grade having Buss adolescent’s SP scores are higher compared to the
among 1620 &perryaggression boys.
adolescents questionnaire and A negative correlation between male adolescent’s
sociometric SP score and physical aggression (r= -.23, p<.01),
measurement was verbal aggression (r= -.15, p<.05), anger (r= -.18,
done. p<.01), hostility (r= -.25, p<.01) and indirect
aggression (r= -.24, p<.01) was found.
For the male adolescent’s SP has linear effect on
five types of aggression.
It was also found that SP’s higher levels increases
the low and high physical aggression, verbal
aggression, hostility and indirect aggression levels.
The anger level increases only when SP is low.
Shahzad S, 2013 Private sector Cross- Adolescents of 140 Self-administered Consistent with the objective and the hypothesis
Begum N, schools of sectional age 12-16 years questionnaire with formulated in the study a significant negative
Khan A Karachi, Sindh study Personal relationship of physical aggression (r = -.203,
(Pakistan) information form, p>.01), verbal aggression (r = -.191, p>.05), anger (r
the trait emotional = -.335, p>.01), hostility (r = -.164, p>0.05) and
intelligence total aggression (r = -.307, p>.00) with trait
questionnaire- emotional intelligence was found showing higher
adolescent short the level of emotional intelligence the lesser the
form, Buss &perry risk of physical aggression.
aggression Experimental avoidance and aggression were
questionnaire found to be associated with each other.

Table 1.Synthesis of findings obtained from the review of articles on Aggression among school going adolescents

47 ISSN: 2349-2880