Proximate causes of aggressive fighting in middle school children

In study 1, 8- and 11-year-old girls and boys (N = 110) were interviewed individually and asked about why children in general, and themselves in particular, fight with fellow pupils in the playground. A substantial proportion of children (51 per cent) reported having had at least one aggressive fight during the previous year. The most common reasons for children resorting to fighting were retaliations to teasing, retaliations to unprovoked assaults, disagreements over aspects of the game that was being played, because another child was disliked, and to settle dominance disputes. In study 2, a direct observational methodology was employed to examine how often children of these ages engage in aggressive fighting, how long fights last, and their proximate causes. Among the younger pupils, a large proportion of fights (43.3 per cent) had no obvious immediate cause to an adult observer, but others were caused when a playful assault received an aggressive retaliation (15.4 per cent), and by disputes over space in the playground (13.5 per cent). Among the 11-year-old pupils, a smaller percentage of fights (14.8 per cent) had no obvious immediate cause. The two most common causes of fighting at this age were aggressive retaliations to teasing (25.9 per cent) and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt (18.5 per cent). In study 3, in situ interviews were combined with direct playground observations in order to reveal participants' views (or onlookers' views if participants were not available to be interviewed) about the causes of fights. Again, the most common causes of fighting were disputes over some aspect of the game being played (33.3 per cent), aggressive retaliations to teasing (25.0 per cent), disagreements over possession of toys/equipment (14.6 per cent), and aggressive retaliations to accidental injury/hurt (14.6 per cent). Age and sex differences are reported in some measures across all three studies. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at improving children's experiences of life on the school playground.