Fighting in Schools – Boys vs. Girls

Regardless of a high school’s funding, location, and student-body demographics, there is always room for improvement when it comes to student-based fighting in schools. Putting a large amount of energized, hormonal teenagers in one place, day after day, is going to open up opportunity for them to become angry and violent with one another. To help prevent fighting in schools, it is important to understand what to watch for. Boys and girls can both become violent, and such fights can range from merely disruptive to life threatening. Here are some differences between how girls and boys tend to fight in school:

 

Fighting in Schools – The Start of the Fight

For girls, the starts of fights are more likely to be sporadic and sudden. Female-specific fights often occur due to the escalation of an argument that is already taking place. For example, two girls may be quarreling in the lunch line, and in the heat of the moment one may push the other and an all-out fight ensues.

For boys, while spur-of-the-moment fights do occur, they are also just as likely to set pre-meditated times and places to fight. This is often for the purpose of making the fight an “event” for the rest of the student body. The news of the impending fight travels, and by the time the fight takes place there is a huge audience gathered to watch.

 

Fighting in Schools – Location

Girls are more likely to fight inside. Bathrooms and locker rooms are common spots for female-based fights to take place. Such close corners often add to the agitation that escalates into many fights to begin with, and such locations are less likely to draw the attention/interruption of adults.

Boys tend to be bolder than girls when it comes to others watching, so they are more willing to start fights in crowded hallways or on school buses. Also, referring back to the “event” preference of an organized fight, such fights are often designated to be outside, either around school grounds or sometimes completely off school property so that there is room for a large audience.

 

Fighting in Schools – The Style of the Fight

Once again, female fights tend to be sudden and unplanned; therefore weapons are less commonly used. A fight between girls tends to constitute pulling out hair, biting, scratching, and screaming. Fights between girls are also more likely to spark help from their surrounding friends, so a fight between two girls can easily turn into a large brawl.

It is considerably more common for boys to have weapons during a school fight. Knives brought from home or baseball bats/hockey sticks taken from gym locker rooms are popular choices for boys when fighting. Also, for boys a fight can be largely pride-based (an attempt to show off one’s strength or personally “settle a score” with another student), so one-on-one fights are typical and less likely to spread into a group fight.

 

Knowing these details about how girls and boys start fighting in schools is critical to being able to spot a potential fight on the horizon and stop it before it begins.

 

 

Citations:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Violence-related behaviors among high school students – United States, 1991–2003. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2004.

Hill SC, Drolet JC: School-related violence among high school students in the United States, 1993–1995. J Sch Health 1999.

Kachur SP, Stennies GM, Powell KE, Modzeleski W, Stephens R, Murphy R, Kresnow M, Sleet D, Lowry R: School-associated violent deaths in the United States, 1992 to 1994. JAMA 1996.

Lowry, R., Sleet, D., Duncan, C., Powell, K., & Kolbe, L. (1995). Adolescents at risk for violence. Educational Psychology Review.

Rudatsikira, Emmanuel, Adamson Muula, and Seter Siziya. “Variables associated with physical fighting among US high-school students.” . Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 29 May 2008. Web. 24 July 2014. <http://www.cpementalhealth.com/content/4/1/16>.