Prevalence of Aggression Behavior and its Associated Factors in High School Students in Southeast of Iran

Introduction: Adolescence is one of the most vulnerable periods of life. Intense excitement caused by physical, psychological and cognitive changes in adolescent’s leads to  aggression. Disregard for aggression in adolescents increases unhealthy relationships among people in the society and decreases the quality of life. Therefore, this study focuses on the prevalence of aggression and factors affecting it in high school students in one of the eastern cities of Iran.

Materials and methods: The statistical population included 3450 high school girls and boys studying in 2015-2014. In this research, 600 students were selected by selected using multistage random sampling method from the target population. In this study, a demographic information questionnaire and Bass and Perry aggression questionnaire were used. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

Results: The results showed that the mean of aggression was 86.87 ± 25.26 and among the aggression aspects, the highest mean was for physical aggression (30.41 ± 8.9) and the lowest mean was for verbal aggression (15.7 ± 5.10).

Conclusion: Various factors are involved in aggression. Family problems, including the separation of parents, the level of literacy and the number of family members are some of the most important factors. In conditions where there are no proper and healthy relationships among family members, the special nature of adolescence leads in aggressive behavior. Aggression can be the cause of social problems suchas delinquency, school inconsistency and addiction.