Aggression and Gender Differences among Adolescents as Revealed by Hopelessness

Abstract

The term adolescence comes from the Latin word “adolescere”, meaning ‘to grow to maturity’. As it is used today, the term adolescence has a broader meaning. Relational aggression: An exploratory study was carried out in Chandigarh city, to know the prevalence of Aggression among early adolescents (N=200). The age range of the participants was 15-17 years and they were studying in different Sr. Secondary Schools of City Beautiful, Chandigarh. The standardized psychological tools like Hopelessness Scale developed by Beck et al (Beck, 1974) and Aggression Questionnaire developed by Buss and Perry (1992) were used in the current study. Initially, the Beck Hopelessness Scale was administered for screening purposes only and all the participants were divided into two groups (High and Low on Hopelessness). The study revealed that both boys and girls have a different level of aggression and besides this hopelessness also plays an important role for the onset or maintaining aggression among the adolescents.