Prevalence and psychosocial factors of aggression among youth.
BACKGROUND
Youth indulgence themselves in various aggressive behaviors leading to significant psychosocial dysfunctions. The present study assesses the prevalence of aggression among youth and to assess the risk factors of aggression among youth.


METHODS
Anger Data sheet, Resilience Scale and Buss-Perry Aggression Scale, were administered on 5476 participants using survey design. Data was collected from different communities (college, residential, apartments and workplace) of Bangalore, Jammu, Indore, Kerala, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Delhi. 47% were female and 53% were male. The mean age of the sample was 20.2 years. Comparative analysis was carried out by Pearson correlation coefficient and Chi-square was also carried out.


RESULTS
About 17.7% of the youth has high mean aggression score on Buss-Perry Aggression Scale. Males have high mean score on aggression than females. Males experienced more verbal aggression, physical aggression and anger than females. Younger age group (16-19 years) experienced more aggression than older age group (20-26 years). The risk factors of the youth aggressions were identified as physical abuse in childhood, substance abuse such as alcohol and tobacco, negative peer influence, family violence, academic disturbance, psychological problems attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, suspicious, loneliness, mood disturbance, negative childhood experience and TV and media.


CONCLUSIONS
The study document, the presence of correlates of risk factors of aggression among youth and implies usages of management strategies to help them to handle aggression.
Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Manoj Kumar
MK
Sharma
Department of Biostatistics, NIMHANS, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Palaniappan
P
Marimuthu
Aggression; risk factors; youth