AGGRESSIVE FIGHTING IN BRITISH MIDDLE SCHOOL-CHILDREN

In study 1, the time when aggressive fighting involving 8 and 11 year- old children took place was examined by means of direct playground obs ervations during lunch-time recess. There was a tendency, significant in the younger group, for there to have been more fights in the last q uarter of recess. In study 2, the causes of fights, the sex of the par ticipants, the proportion of fights that were escalated by other child ren joining in in a non-conciliatory way, and the proportion in which children intervened to stop the fights were investigated, again by mea ns of direct playground observations. The most common causes of fights were disputes over some aspect of a rule-governed game, teasing, reta liations to accidental hurt/injury, and to a lesser extent disputes ov er space. Most of the fights that were observed involved boys only (90 .5%), and only a minority involved boys a nd girls (7.9%) or just girl s (1.6%). Most fights (82.5%) were not escalated by other children and most fights (92.1%) did not involve attempts to stop them by other ch ildren. In study 3, interview data concerning children's views on figh ting are reported. Many children expressed generally negative attitude s towards fighting, and there appeared to be several common 'barriers' that deterred children from participating. On the other hand, some ch ildren also articulated reasons why they sometimes felt it was necessa ry to fight. The significance of the results from the three studies fo r managing children's aggressive behaviour in schools is discussed.