ABSTRACT
Self-report data such as these, especially on such an emotive topic as aggression/fighting, need to be considered with caution. Some children could either over-or under-report their involvement for reasons which are not clearly understood at present. One study of bullies and victims found that some children who may be classified as extreme victims are less likely to report being victimised in face-to-face interviews than they are in anonymous questionnaires (Ahmad and Smith, 1990). Hence, alternative methodologies should be employed to look for confirmatory evidence of the level of children’s involvement in playground fighting and bullying. Boulton (1993 a) directly observed a sample of 8 and 11-year-old boys and girls as they interacted on the playground. Focal sampling, recording the behaviour of individual children for periods of about forty minutes per child, showed that the mean rates for engaging in playground fighting and bullying for 8-year-old girls and boys was 2.6 and 3.7 episodes per hour respectively, and for 11-year-old girls and boys it was 1.1 and 1.4 episodes per hour respectively.
