Uczniowie szkół podstawowych w sytuacji przemocy

Abstract

Aggression and violence in human relations is perhaps the most painful and burning problem within the fast-changing Polish society. Among the activities undertaken towards some restriction of violence, the diagnosis and the knowledge about the reasons and conditions of aggressive behaviors become more and more necessary. The present paper presents selected results of research carried out among primary school pupils in the region of Silesia. The questionnaire research was organized in the years 1996—1997 by a group of sociologists and psychologists and it was the first research work on the subject organized upon such extensive grounds in the region since 1989. It covered 859 pupils living in the Silesian agglomeration. It was realized in the cities where the ration of the threat with juvenile delinquency was greatest. They were: Katowice, Gliwice, Bytom, Zabrze, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Sosnowiec and Ruda Śląska. Only some of the results of the research have been presented within the scope of the present work. They mainly refer to the semantic use of the word “aggression”, the definition of the environment in which a young man most frequently encounters violence and aggression, the occurrence of different forms of deviation and dysfunctional behaviors at school, informal youth groups and their specificities. The very word “aggression” has a characteristic connotation in the world of the group upon which the research was carried out. It is most frequently identified with physical violence (57% of the questioned). The use of physical strength in relations with others is perceived here as a way of assuring oneself various advantages and domination over others or as a result of boredom, desire to discharge tensions and frustration. Only one out of three questioned linked aggression with verbal behaviors such as: invectives, threats, quarrels, verbal blackmail, etc. It is possible to hypothesize here that the actual use and the sense of the word “aggression” is correlated with the characteristic features of the micro-worlds in which an individual functions. Verbal vulgarities, invectives become the norm of the mutual relations to such an extent that they need not be associated with aggression, purposeful harassment, or actual repulsion felt towards another person.In the consciousness of the questioned youth there functions a certain social image of boys and girls of the same age who behave aggressively more frequently than others. They are first of all boys, rejected persons (perceived as the disliked ones) and poor pupils achieving worse educational results. The level of wealth is not the factor differentiating the tendencies to being an aggressive person among others of the same age. One cannot claim, on the basis of the questionnaires, that the pupils coming from poor families are more aggressive than their richer colleagues. Violence and aggression become in the eyes of the questioned pupils something common. Almost 79% of them have come across acts of violence in their environment. The areas most strongly marked by violence are considered to be: football stadiums, city streets, films and computer games, schools, rock concerts. Violence is decidedly more frequently observable at schools and among the youth of the same age than at home, within the family. As many as 93% of them tend to perceive their homes as the place free from violence and aggression. Every fifth of the questioned experienced aggression among those of the same age. The victims of the aggression usually chose the strategy of “keeping silent” about the event. The arguments for that were shame, disbelief in effectiveness of the intervention, fear of revenge. Perhaps aggression, and in particular the fact of becoming its victim, leads to the diminishing of the attractiveness of the actor in the eyes of the others, and thus silence may in such situations constitute a way to “preserve ones face”, the position with the group, etc. As regards the world of institutions, in which it is relatively easy to come across aggression, the youth very frequently pointed to the institution of school. School, as the research shows, has a chance to become one of the least friendly fragments of the social space of a child. Elements conductive to that are: anonymity, the formation of youth groups within it, of “packs” and “gangs” with aggressive attitudes towards the surrounding, vandalism and other forms of pathological behaviors, as well as violence in the teacher-pupil relations (both verbal, but in some cases also physical). These are, in short, the basic characteristic features of the problem of aggression in the social consciousness of primary school pupils discussed in the paper.