Aggressive Behaviors among 15–16-Year-Old Romanian High School Students: Results from Two Consecutive Surveys Related to Alcohol and Other Drug Use at the European Level

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine aggressive behaviors among Romanian high school students between 15 and 16 years old, to compare data in two national representative samples and to identify factors associated with physical fighting. This study investigates the association of selected factors (social, school performance and substance use) with physical fighting. A total of 2289 Romanian students were included in the 2007 database and 2770 in the 2011 database. This study revealed that 35.87% of the teenagers have taken part in a physical fight during the previous 12 months, as compared with the European average of 31.5%. Romania has the highest prevalence of violent behavior by participating in a group bruising of an individual in both surveys, 2007 and 2011. A logistic regression analysis performed for the 2011 study revealed the following factors associated with physical fighting: binge drinking during the previous 30 days, male gender, serious problems with friends, parent(s) who do not know where and with whom the adolescents spend their evenings, poor parental caring, low school grades, and high truancy. A decrease in almost all aggressive behaviors was noticed in 2011, compared to 2007. These findings may be useful to support and guide policy makers regarding improvement and implementation of strategies to further prevent aggressive behaviors in teenagers.

Predictors of deliberate self-harm among adolescents: Answers from a cross-sectional study on India

“…The occurrence of self inflicted harm among adolescents is a self-destructive phenomenon and has a huge socio-psycho and health impact on individuals, families, friends and even communities [ 23 , 39 , 41 ]. This can be a huge problem for children and adolescents with both normal development and those with psychosocial disturbances [ 23 , 24 , 34 ]. Children and adolescents with such behaviour can also be destructive in nature and that includes a wide range of behaviors: explosive temper tantrums, physical aggression, fighting, threats or attempts to hurt others (including thoughts of wanting to kill others), use of weapons, cruelty toward animals, fire setting, intentional destruction of property and vandalism [ 27 , 34 , 39 , 42 , 43 ].…”

“…Among the children and adolescent population, there are various causes that make them susceptible to self inflicted harm such as poor relationship skills, substance abuse, underlying health causes and stress or frustration [ 22 , 34 , 36 ]. Sometimes adolescent population also face the problem of loneliness, has difficulty with social interaction and interpersonal communication that leads to impulsiveness and aggressiveness [ 24 , 27 , 29 ]. Numerous research studies and clinical trials have concluded on different aspects of child and adolescent population such as health behavior, mental and psychological issues and anxiety, depression, self-inflicted harm [ 2 , 3 , 14 ], and suicidal tendency and found a complex interaction of factors that led to an increased risk of violent and aggressive and self-inflicted harm behavior in children and adolescents [ 24 , 25 , 28 , 33 , 40 ].…”

School Refusal Behavior and Aggression in Spanish Adolescents

“…In other words, they display manifestations of anxious and depressive behavior ( Evren et al, 2015 ; Finning et al, 2019 ; Knollmann et al, 2019 ; Lawrence et al, 2019 ; Fornander and Kearney, 2020 ). These behaviors, characterized by a low emotional control, may lead to the manifestation of aggressive behavior as a means of escape ( Henry et al, 2012 ; Bucur et al, 2020 ; Fernández-Sogorb et al, 2020 ). According to Law et al (2011) , how an individual behaves in the face of distinct situations may have repercussions on the manifestation of emotions such as anger or aggression, thus increasing the risk of impulsive or aggressive behavior that may lead to school refusal ( Shaikh et al, 2019 ).…”

“…A significant relationship was revealed to exist between both variables. Future studies should consider the need to design and offer educational strategies with specific intervention and prevention measures for use by schools and education specialists ( Bucur et al, 2020 ). Preventive interventions could be focused on improving the affective levels of all students, especially the most emotionally vulnerable, which would be positively reflected in the development and happiness of the students due to the relationship found between the school refusal behavior, affectivity, and aggression ( Sanmartín et al, 2018 ; Vicent et al, 2018 ).…”

Students in danger: Binge drinking behaviour and associated factors in Hungary

“…For adolescents and young adults, the consequences of BD tend to be more common than adults, and BD can be associated with special negative health effects, such as hangover (headache and upset stomach) ( 8 ), increased risk of unplanned, unprotected sex ( 9 ) with consequent unplanned pregnancies, and/or sexually transmitted diseases (STD). BD was also related to higher rates of alcohol-related injuries ( 10 ) and violence ( 11 ), some of which were more common in boys, for example “physical fights” and “trouble with the police”, but both boys and girls who drank alcohol on more than three to five days in the last 30 days were involved in other problems, e.g. below average academic achievement ( 12 ).…”