Behavioral disorders in the school: Participant roles and sub-roles in three types of school violence

This study presents an attempt to widen the study of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) to include children not formally identified by the school as having EBD through examining the case of extreme school aggressors and their victims. The research describes the validation of the School Violence Inventory (SVI) and its use to map participant roles in six types of school aggression and victimization. Middle and high school students in Israel (N = 10,383) completed the SVI and were designated as uninvolved, pure aggressors, pure victims, and mixed aggressor-victims for direct physical, relational, and sexual aggression and victimization. Results showed a main effect for grade level for all types of aggression. Multiple hierarchical regressions showed different trajectories for each of the four participant roles. Implications for future research delineating the psychological markers of each of the different roles and implications for the future study of EBD are discussed.