Female Aggression and the Effects it Has on How Its Victims Feel About School

¶ … Female Student Aggression on Other Females' Attitudes About School - Proposed Study

This paper presents a rough draft blueprint of a proposed study about female aggression ages 10-14 and how the aggression makes girls feel about school. The writer explores various studies and sources for the purpose of presenting evidence that a study on the topic is warranted. In addition the writer discusses the elements of the proposed study including methodology and participants. There were five sources used to complete this paper.

Effects of Female Aggression on Other Females' Attitudes About School

School violence is something that has garnered recent media attention. Columbine, the shootings in an Arkansas middle school and other events have turned the nations' eye to bullies and their impact. While the cases in which someone is killed gets a lot of attention both from the media and the administrators there is a type of school violence that receives very little fan fair but affects millions of students annually across the country. Female aggression at school is not as publicized because it rarely ends in murder, however it is an issue for the many female victims of the bullies. Girls, between the ages of 10 and 14, experience changes in hormonal, emotional and physical aspects of their life. When aggression by other females is added to the equation it can be the catalyst for many school issues. This proposal is for a study of female aggression at school and how it affects the attitudes of girls between 10 and 14 about school. The study will explore how aggression makes girls feel about themselves, as well as school. The study will include questions about how safe young girls feel in their school environment and whether or not female aggression at school causes them to not want to attend their classes. Finally the study will explore what, if any impact female aggression has on school performance.

Research has shown that female aggression at school is a largely unreported event. Teasing, shunning, threatening and bullying are among the top aggressive behaviors experienced by female victims in the school setting according to past reported incidences.

One study concluded that this type of female aggression at school can and does lead to long-term anxiety and depression for some of the victims of such aggression (Can, 1998).

A survey recently conducted in the Hamilton area involving 2,500 kids found that 17% of girls and 25% of boys regularly experienced bullying. About 22% of girls and 42% of boys do the bullying, and nearly half of the kids surveyed said it's OK to bully someone you don't like. In terms of dealing with the problem, teachers estimated that they intervened in 70% of incidents, but kids say this happens only 5% to 6% of the time. In effect, when videotaped, Peplar found teachers caught only 4% of incidents (Can, 1998)."

Another study revealed that out of more than 300 girls a large number of them had been victim or knew someone who was a victim of female aggression.

This study will present statistical data on how that aggression may or may not interfere with the victim's feelings about school and their school performance itself (Simmons, 2002).

There is some evidence that a sixth grader who has been sent to the office at least once for harassing another child is displaying bullying traits and behaviors. This study will target the victims as opposed to the aggressors to determine how effective the aggressors are in disrupting the education of their victims (Tobin, 1996).

Antisocial behavior in girls has been sorely understudied (Zoccolillo, 1993). However, conduct problems are the second most common diagnosis among girls during the teenage years and appear equally stable over time for boys and girls (Robins, 1986). Diagnoses of conduct disorder peak for boys at age 10, whereas diagnoses of conduct disorder among girls rise through age 16 (Johnson, 1999)."

This study provides the backdrop for the need to examine the effects on the victims regarding school.

PARTICIPANTS

The participants of the study will be selected from late elementary school and middle school female students in one district. They will range in age from 10 to 14 years old and they will be of mixed socioeconomic lifestyles as well as mixed abilities academically. They will also be of mixed gender. The participants will include a scale group of special education students matched ratio wise to the same percentage of non-disabled students.

METHODOLOGY

The study will take place through the use of a self reporting survey questionnaire. The survey will ask questions such as whether the participant had been a victim of female aggression at school and if so was it physical, emotional or verbal. The participant will rate the seriousness of the aggression as well as the seriousness of the affect of that aggression. The participants will also be asked about school. There will be questions about how they like school, what their favorite subject is and other things. The survey will be rated in such a way that the participants will not be told the school enthusiasm area is related to the female aggression area. It will be at the top of the survey so that they answer those questions first.