title: Brief report: Play fighting to curb self-reported aggression in young adolescents.
abstract: This study investigated the effects of play fighting on aggressive behaviors. It was hypothesized that the teaching of play fighting during physical education lessons could reduce self-reported aggression in a group of adolescents to a greater extent than playing volleyball (a low physical contact activity). Participants were 210 young adolescents (mean age = 13.27, SD = 0.48 years) from 10 classrooms that were randomly assigned to an 8-lesson play fighting session or to traditional volleyball lessons. They filled in the 12-item short version of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ-12) pre- and post-interventions. The play fighting group showed a significant reduction in all the four subscales of the AQ-12 (Cohen d ranging from 0.61 to 0.67), while participants in the volleyball group did not. Results suggest that play fighting might provide useful contents in a physical education curriculum, with possible reduction in aggressive behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via F. Marzolo 3, 35131 Padova, Italy. Electronic address: attilio.carraro@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Attilio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carraro
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padua, Via F. Marzolo 3, 35131 Padova, Italy. Electronic address: erica.gobbi@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gobbi
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy. Electronic address: angelica.moe@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Angelica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moè
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D054798:Volleyball / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Aggression; Physical education; Play fighting; Positive youth development