Youth violence, including school bullying and fighting, has become a global public health problem. Stress has been identified as a factor related to aggression (i.e., bullying behaviors, fighting, and anger), of which inner-city youth are particularly vulnerable given their often disproportionately high stress living environments.
Stress and aggression are of particular concern in urban physical education (PE) given the proliferation of competitive, sport-based curricula and the often-limited supervision that takes place in the PE setting. Recent studies also indicate that bullying in PE leads to avoidance of school-based physical activity. Using the Social Ecological Model, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between stress and aggression in inner-city elementary physical education students.
Method:
After parental consent, participants completed a questionnaire with validated scales measuring stress and aggression, as well as other demographics. Participants included 138, 3rd-5th grade students from six inner-city schools (82% African American, 7.6% Hispanic, 11.4% other) in the Midwestern United States. Data were screened for missing values, outliers, and normality; after all assumptions were met a series of multiple regression analyses were used.
Analysis/Results:
After correlations were conducted to determine relationships, a series of multiple regression analyses were used to determine the predictors of aggression in elementary inner-city students; controlling for gender, race, and age. Regression results revealed that fighting was significantly predicted by the independent variables with stress, anger, and bullying uniquely contributing (F(6,115) = 21.54, p < .01, adj. R2 = .51). Adiditonally, bullying was uniquely predicted by fighting and anger (F(6,115) = 35.01, p < .01, adj. R2 = .63).
Conclusions:
This study established a significant relationship between stress, anger, fighting and bullying behaviors in urban PE, possibly indicating a need for renewed focus on anti-aggressive approaches and positive stress response techniques. Contrary to the current practice in many urban PE settings that emphasize a competitive PE climate, this study suggests that broadening these curricula with non-traditional, less stress-inducing forms of PA would be an asset to PE. Specifically, mindfulness-based approaches, such as Yoga, could enable educators to create more peaceful and less stressful climates, which might then lead to less bullying, fighting, and aggression, hence a more productive learning environment.