Impact Analysis of the Subscale of Aggression in Depression and Anxiety, Among Adolescents Aged 16-18 Years- Case Study: High Secondary School ‘’Luciano Motroni’’ Prizren

Introduction

The term aggressiveness is often used to describe the behavioral activities of others as well as oneself. In psychology, the concept of aggression refers to a variety of behavior that results in emotional as well as physical harm to an individual. Social psychologists explain aggression as an action that is planned to harm those people who do not want to be harmed. (Baron, R. A., & Richardson, D. R., 1994).

Aggression is present at all times and it is very important to understand that it manifests and expands through people's thoughts, fantasies, their desires, thoughts and daily behaviors. (Semprini F, Giovanni AF, Sonino N., 2010). During adolescence, aggression is often presented as a conscious effort to achieve goals and unaware of their autonomy, and many authors around the world express this very well. (Semprini F, Giovanni AF, Sonino N., 2010)

Aggression in general in young people is manifested through their rebellion against society and the environment in general, starting with problems at home with disobedience to parents, various aggressions, ranging from verbal, indirect aggression and other dangerous aspects. (Csorba J, World E, Plener P., 2009). Aggressive behavior is often associated with lower verbal and cognitive abilities According to (LJ., 2008) aggression is presented as a skill developed with low verbal and cognitive abilities.

According (Carrion, 2012) describes anger as an emotional state that in intensity can move from mild irritation to enraged anger. Anger is followed by physical reactions including accelerated heart rate, increased blood pressure and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Anger is a reaction (physiological and psychic) ​​to a perceived threat to oneself or to other important people, present, past, or future. The threat may seem real, discussed, or imagined. Anger is often a response to the perception of threat due to physical conflict, injustice, neglect, humiliation or betrayal among other quarrels. Anger can be expressed through active or passive behaviors. In the case of "active" emotion, the angry person "expresses" verbally or physically to the target subject. When anger is a "passive emotion" this is characterized by silence, passive-aggressive behavior (hostility) and tension. "

According to a research report conducted by (Kosovo, 2016)), absences and violence in general, emphasizing verbal and psychological violence against students (indirect / instrumental violence), are more pronounced than physical violence (direct violence) and is characterized by insults, derision, the use of insulting names, as well as the spread of gossip and personal information. Also the presence of cold weapons is much greater. Of all the students surveyed as part of this survey, 16.26% stated that they were victims of violence, intimidation and bullying. Although there is a lot of research providing evidence that the use of violence of various forms among students continues to be present in educational settings in all schools in Kosovo, there has been no research that speaks to the role of rumination in general. and in particular ruminating on anger, the appearance and development of violence of various forms. Adolescence is a very critical period in which young people or adolescents undergo social, emotional, and physical changes, which in most cases can create negative perceptions and aggressive behaviors that are subsequently followed by problems. (Peter RE, Crocker CMS, Kowalski KC, McDonough MH, Nanette K., 2006).

Recently, researchers have begun exploring the possible role of rumination, or the tendency to think about the experiences and feelings associated with those experiences in aggressive behavior. It is only natural for people to reflect on situations that are followed by painful, negative, or distressing experiences. In doing so, individuals strive to see situations that we are rumored to have from a new perspective and thus reduce the distress we feel (Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B.E., Lyubomirsky, S., 2008). But what usually happens is that rather than feeling liberated from this process, we think of the distressing situations by repeating them in our head and thus end up even more upset, angry or anxious. For example, we repeat the scene of a conflicting conversation with someone by analyzing it in detail, looking at different versions of a confrontation with that person, although in reality that confrontation may never happen. (Csorba J, Dinya E, Plener P., 2009)

However, the construct of rumination as such is slightly broad, so it involves the tendency to focus on many negative moods rather than one particular emotion. For this reason some researchers have focused on rumination in anger, the tendency to focus on thoughts related to emotional state during an episode of anger. In general, if anger is viewed as an emotion, rumination in anger can be defined as “thinking about this emotion” (Sukhodolsky, Golub and Cromwell, 2000).

Purpose of the Research

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects that underlie aggression, such as anger, hostility, verbal aggression, indirect aggression, non-consistent anxiety and depression on adolescents aged 16-18 years. To find out if variables or subscales of aggression contribute to the development of adolescent violence.

Research Question

1) Will students with high aggression, i.e. verbal aggression, anger, hostility, indirect and inconsistent aggression, exhibit high levels of anxiety and depression?

Research hypothesis:

H01. The subscales of aggression such as verbal aggression, hostility, anger, indirect and inconsistent aggression have a negative impact on the increase of anxiety / depression among young people aged 16-18 in the secondary high schools of Prizren municipality.

Research Methodology

The research methodology belongs to the quantitative type. This study was conducted with adolescents or students aged 16-18 years. The case study was taken from the Luciano Motroni High School in Prizren municipality. The number of participants is 150 students, 50 students for each class, 50 students from grade 10 or 16 years old, 50 students from grade 11 or 17 years old and 50 students from grade 11 or 18 years old.

A standardized questionnaire (BPAQ, 1992) was used to conduct the research, consisting of demographic data including gender, class, school success, and parent qualification. The Likert (1 not at all like me .. 5 completely like me) and the third part included questions about anxiety and depression categorized according to the Likert scale (1 never .... 5 all the time). The analyzes were performed through IBM SPSS (version 25), whereas correlation analysis according to spearman was used to validate the research hypothesis.

Empirical Results of the Analysis

Descriptive Analysis

The results show that a total of 150 students aged 16-18 participated in the research, while in all three categories there are 50 students. In terms of their school success we see that 4.7% have poor success, 7.3% have sufficient success, 28.7% have good success, 26.7% have very good success and 32.7% have excellent success.

Regarding the education of parents we see that the education of the father is higher than that of the mother in terms of higher education, while the economic level of the family shows that the vast majority of the families have a very similar economic level.

Confirmation of the Hypothesis

Hypothesis 1

Aggression subscales such as verbal aggression, hostility, and anger have an impact on increasing anxiety / depression in young people aged 15-18.

The results show that a statistically significant correlation was found between the degrees of aggression and anxiety and depression, which confirms that these aggression phenomena are very influential in the lives of adolescents.

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Exactly we find that verbal aggression has a high positive correlation (rho = .165 **, p value = .044) which is significant at 5% confidence level, so verbal aggression as a subscale of aggression has a significant significant effect that it affects the increase in anxiety and depression in young people aged 16-18. Anger as a subscale of aggression has a high positive correlation (rho = .386 **, p value = .000) which is significant at 1% confidence level, so we can say that anger negatively affects anxiety and depression. Hostility also has a positive correlation (rho = .176 *, p value = .033) which is significant at 5% confidence level and we say that the higher the hostility among adolescents aged 16-18 years, high will be their anxiety and depression. The inconsistent response also has a positive correlation (rho = .170 *, p value = .037) which is significant at 5% confidence level and we say that the more such an inconsistent response the more will have anxiety and depression. Finally we have the indirect aggression that presents a positive correlation (rho = .261 **, p value = .001) which is significant at 1% confidence level.

So, subscales of aggression such as verbal aggression, hostility, anger, non-consistent response, and indirect aggression, have an impact on increasing anxiety / depression in young people aged 16-18.

Correlation between verbal aggression, anxiety and depression

The correlation between anger, anxiety and depression

The correlation between hostility, anxiety and depression

Correlation between inconsistent response anxiety and depression

Conclusions and Recommendations

The results show that the study included a total of 150 students aged 16-18, with a low level of school success, a high father's appearance and low maternal education, and a relatively positive economic level. Correlation analysis has shown that aggression subscales such as verbal aggression, hostility, anger, non-consistent response, and indirect aggression have an impact on the increase of anxiety / depression in young people aged 16-18 years. Another research conducted by Sherrill et.al., (2016), individuals who were singled out as having high aggressive traits exhibited increased aggressive behaviors, in situations where there were provocations.

What it can recommend for the future is that research should be expanded to a wider territory in Kosovo, to include different ages of students / adolescents, and that every school should have a school psychologist who will help high school students to be consulted about their problems and to be able to anticipate problems. This would be very important as we see that undercurrents of aggression are very dangerous factors that affect students' anxiety and depression, and this is presented with a poor level, not a good level of school education.

References