Stacy Victoria Call and David Nelson, School of Family Life

Introduction

The adolescent years have been described as a “unique developmental period wherein relationships become increasingly important and intimate.”¹ This being said, many relationships can become tainted or ruined when injured with aggression. Studies have shown that many adolescents are involved in physical and/or relational aggression.² One study by Crick and Grotpeter found that children that are aggressive are at risk for serious adjustment difficulties, including being significantly more rejected, higher levels of loneliness, depression, and isolation.³ This study was performed to evaluate what different methods of aggression were more common in Turkish 7^th graders.

Methodology

A survey was given out to 7^th graders in Turkey to determine the different ways that their aggression could be displayed. Four questions were asked in the survey: (1) “What do most girls do when they want to hurt or be mean to other girls?”, (2) “What do most boys do when they want to hurt or be mean to other boys?”, (3) “What do most girls do when they want to hurt or be mean to boys?”, and (4) “What do most boys do when they want to hurt or be mean to girls?”

The responses to these aforementioned questions were carefully coded to decipher what types of aggression are most prevalent in Turkish culture. The different codes were (1) Direct relational aggression, (2) Indirect relational aggression, (3) Cyberbulling/Electronic aggression, (4) Nonverbal aggression, (5) Verbal aggression, (6) Passive aggression, (7) Direct physical aggression, (8) Indirect physical aggression, (9) Sexual aggression or harassment, and (10) Vague.

Results

The results that were found in this study was that the two methods of aggression most used in Turkey are direct physical aggression and verbal aggression. These levels varied depending on if the relationship was boy-boy, boy-girl, girl-girl, or girl-boy. But the predominant fact remained the same in all of them. In situations where boys were the aggressors, physical and verbal aggression constituted for over 70% of the results. In situations where girls were the aggressors, physical and verbal aggression made up about 60% of the results, with about 15% also being indirect relational aggression.

Some aggressive behaviors that were found to be indigenous to the Turkish culture included such things as “tearing another’s hair out”, “hit others with pencil cases” “give someone attitude”, “chasing”, ”shove hands in each other’s throat”, amongst others.

Discussion

From the results, it is interesting to note that most of the aggression in Turkey is a direct form of aggression. In this study, we also coded results from the U.S. to see how the cultures differentiated from each other. While we do not have all of the results from the U.S. in, which is why it is not being quoted here, as coders we did notice that there was a wider spread of aggression in the U.S. This showed us how significant it was that most of the results from the Turkish culture were in the physically and verbal aggression categories. The fact that both of these forms of aggression are direct forms of aggression, instead of acting passive-aggressive or only being aggressive behind someone’s back, made us wonder what cultural influences there could be that would bring about his result.

Another fact that we found interesting in our results involved the aforementioned study by Crick and Grotpeter, they had found that girls were significantly more relationally aggressive than boys.⁴ Through our results, we were able to see that at least 15% of the girls’ responses were relationally aggressive, while only a little over 5% of the boys’ responses were.

Conclusion

Many researchers have tried to further understand aggression so that its effects can be limited. In this study, we were able to find that the main forms of aggression used in the Turkish culture were physical and verbal aggression. While much research can still be done to figure out why our study produced these results or if other forms of aggression are displayed at other ages in the adolescent years, these results will hopefully be able to help us and others be more aware of the forms of aggression and guard more against its effects.

1. Nelson, D., Springer, M., Nelson, L., & Bean, N. (2008). Normative beliefs regarding aggression in emerging adulthood. Social Development, 17, 638-660.
2. Marsee , M.A., Frick, P.J., Barry, C.T., Kimonis, E.R., Centifanti, L.M., & Aucoin, K.J. (2014). Profiles of the forms and functions of self-reported aggression in three adolescent samples. Development and Psychopathology, 26(3), 705-720.
3. Crick, N.R., &Grotpeter, J.G. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710-722.
4. Crick, N.R., &Grotpeter, J.G. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710-722.