Personality Traits and Family Environment: Antecedents of Student Aggression
Personality Traits and Family Environment: Antecedents of Student Aggression

Summary/Abstract: This article presents findings from a survey of the most common forms of aggression in students, along with some of the most significant antecedents of the formation and manifestation of their aggressive behavior. The study utilizes both personological and sociocognitive approaches, including Bandura’s social learning theory, in a survey of 992 students from four different grades (4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th) in six Bulgarian towns (Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo, Burgas, Radnevo, Mezdra, and Haskovo). We examined the effect that a range of personality traits (anger, revengefulness, suspiciousness, rancor, striving for control), which are related to trans-situational manifestations of aggressiveness, have upon three main forms of aggression (physical, verbal, indirect) We also investigated the effects of the family environment (parental problem behaviors, the relationship between parents and the parent-child relationship) in the same regard. The dynamics of the effects of personality traits were presented in respect to students’ grade and gender. We designed and employed a questionnaire consisting of simplified scales and items that were comprehensible even to the youngest respondents in order to make it possible to compare data obtained from students over a wide range of ages. The findings show that revengefulness is the strongest antecedent of students’ overall levels of aggression among the personality traits studied. A family environment characterized by parental problem behaviors, arguing, neglect, and violent interactions between parents and/or between parents and their children is also revealed to be a significant antecedent of aggressive behavior among students. Certain implications for preventing aggression and for aggression-reduction program for students are discussed.

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