SELF-REPORTED PHYSICAL AGGRESSION AMONG YOUNG MEN

This article describes two studies involving a questionnaire asking ab out the circumstances, antecedents, and consequences of the most recen t fight among samples of young men (100 students in Study I; 88 studen ts and 87 unemployed men in Study II). In Study I, the students also c ompleted a standard aggression questionnaire and one concerning mascul ine values to assess whether measures of physical aggressiveness were associated with traditional masculine role norms. There was a weak ass ociation with physical aggressiveness but not with reported fights. St udents with traditionally masculine interests did report more fights. In Study II, both subsamples showed significant correlations between a masculine role subscale involving toughness and measures of fight occ urrence and recency and physical aggression. The findings from this st udy were primarily assessed in relation to hypotheses derived from Dar winian sexual selection theory: that fights between young men are like ly to arise from threats to personal integrity and status, women, and resources; that fights will be more related to social status and be mo re damaging among the unemployed men than the students. In line with t hese predictions, insults were a potent cause of fights in both sample s, but public humiliation was a more common reason among the unemploye d men. Money or property was more often a reason for fighting among th e unemployed men, and there were indications that their fights were mo re damaging. Unemployed men also showed higher levels of anger and phy sical aggression (but not verbal aggression) on a standard aggression questionnaire. Other differences included the location of the fight, b ut there were no significant differences between the two samples in wh ether or not a fight had occurred in the last 5 years. (C) 1995 Wiley- Liss, Inc.