Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 48

46 Background Fighting, bullying, and violent acts, once believed common- place in high schools, is now filtering down to middle and elementary schools (Boothe, Bradly, Flick, Keough, & Kirk, 1994). Subsequently, discipline reports generated by schools continue to show problems with “bullying, disrespect, ver - bal abuse, and general classroom disorder occurring daily or weekly” (Scott, Park, Swain-Bradway, & Landers, 2007, p. 223). In a recent survey of 1,912 urban students in the fourth and fifth grades, one-third of those surveyed indicated that they would hit peers back if struck by them, and 23%-43% worried about being physically attacked in or around school (Price, Telljohann, Drake, Marsico, & Zyla, 2002). In addi - tion, a direct linear relationship existed between age of the students and whether they would hit a peer back in response to being hit (Price et al., 2002). The older students were more likely than younger students to indicate that they would hit a peer back in response to being hit (Price at al., 2002). Find- ings of Price’s study (2002) indicated a need for early inter- vention in response to student to student acts of aggression. In addition to student to student aggression, research has shown an increase in student to teacher aggression. The role of the classroom teacher has become more multidimen- sional as teachers are being asked to accommodate for stu- dents with more diverse academic and behavioral needs in the general education setting (Scott et al., 2007). The increase in disruptive, aggressive student behaviors has resulted in frequent requests for assistance from teachers related to be- havior and classroom management (Cotton, 2001). Accord - ing to the National School Safety Center (2013), during the 2007–2008 school year, 7% of elementary school teachers re- ported being threatened or physically attacked by students compared to 8% of secondary school teachers. The differ - ence in the percentage of elementary and secondary teachers in city schools who reported being threatened with injury was not statistically significant. However, according to the National School Safety Center (2013), 5% more elementary school teachers reported having actually been physically at- tacked than secondary teachers. Although no globally accepted definition of aggressive behavior exists, consensus seems to exist that aggressive be- havior is meant to either injure another, to gain something for the aggressor, or to result in both injury and extraneous gains (Zirpoli, 2014). Aggressive behaviors typically ex - pressed by primary aged children include a range of acts from threatening to teasing, to physical fighting, to violence (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998). Along with verbal and physical acts, researchers have increasingly highlighted in- direct, relational, or social aggression, such as peer exclusion and gossiping, which harms others through the manipula - tion of social relationships (Henington, Hughes, Cavell, & Thompson, 1998). The most common response to the epidemic of youth vi- olence is some sort of consequence or punishment (Sprague & Golly, 2013). The majority of society tends to believe that if the correct punishment can be found, then people, in this case youth, will start doing the right thing (Sprague & Golly, 2013). These formal punishments have often been applied Kevin S. Hood, Ed.D. EFFECTS OF TEXAS BEHAVIOR SUPPORT INITIATIVE ON REDUCING AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS IN ELEMENTARY STUDENTS Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership 2017, VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 http://www.dbu.edu/doctoral/edd