Girls Behaving Badly: Wellington Secondary School Girls and Their Violent Behaviour - a Self-Report Survey

Abstract

Concern that the incidence of female violence is increasing has been growing in many of our communities, however little research has been established which explores if this is actually the case. The current research seeks to challenge the public's preconceived ideas and provide a sample of girls with an opportunity to describe the nature of their violence. To achieve this, a sample of Wellington secondary school girls, aged between 15 and 18 years of age, were approached in 2002 to participate in a self-report survey. The final sample included 543 girls who were currently attending one of nine schools selected from throughout the Wellington region. It was hypothesised that the nature of girls’ violence has a unique and gendered pattern, which derives from different motivations and contexts for the use of violence. The findings from the questionnaire supported this hypothesis, and suggested that the majority of girls' violence was of a relatively minor nature, and that girls were more verbally aggressive over and above other types of aggression. However, girls were prepared to resort to violent behaviour under certain situations of environmental stress. Further analyses suggested that girls' aggression could be classified in terms of the girls' relationships with their targets, and in addition, their subsequent violence may be predicted by feelings of aggression and poor attitudes towards the context of violence. However, the current research is simply an exploratory study and further research is recommended to enhance our knowledge about the nature of girls' violence.