ISMJ

Background: According to World Health Organization, aggression is one of the most serious problems in nations’ general health. The current study was aimed to investigate the predictive factors of aggressive behaviors in guidance and high school male students, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Material and Methods: A total of 457 guidance and high school male students from Sanandaj city were randomly selected. They were asked to complete a questionnaire included questions about attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention, and aggressive behavior. The questionnaire was validated by the researcher, beforehand. Pearson correlation coefficient and Linear and Ordinal Multivariate Regression was used to investigate the predictability of the constructs of the theory for intention and behavior.

Results: The participants’ age range was from 12 to 17 year (mean, 14.70). %35.5 of the participants reported no physical aggression and %26.9 of them reported no verbal aggression during the last month. Linear regression showed that the theory components, all together, could predict %50.2 of the intended physical aggressive behavior, and %73.3 of the intended verbal aggressive behavior. Moreover, the perceived behavior control was the most predictive construct for intended aggression. The results, also, revealed that the theory components, all together, could predict %36.3 of the verbal aggressive behavior, and %21.1 of the physical aggressive behavior. The results, also showed that, intended behavior was the most predictive construct for the verbal aggressive behavior, and that perceived behavior control was the most predictive construct for physical aggression.

Conclusion: As, during physical aggression, people feel less control on their behavior; and their verbal aggression is affected by their attitudes, paying attention to these constructs could result into decreasing adolescents’ aggression. In other words, taking part in workshops aimed to increasing behavior control and attitude improvement could help adolescents to control their behavior and to avoid aggressive behaviors.