Aggression in school and family contexts among youngsters with special needs: Qualitative and quantitative evidence from the TranSpace project

TranSpace is an international project for empowering youngsters with disabilities to protect themselves from community-based violence. In the context of the project, an initial empirical study was carried out to assess the prevalence of aggression and victimization among these youngsters and to gain deeper insight into these phenomena. Participants in the project, aged from 11 to 21 years, came from six European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain). In a mixed-methods study, initial data were gathered using the Aggression Victimization Instrument, which is a composite of well-established and new measures and is used to assess aggressive acts in school and family contexts; further insights into emergent themes were obtained by conducting qualitative analyses using open-ended questions. Overall, youngsters reported a low incidence of aggressive acts; the prevalence is higher in the school context from the perspective of the victim. Females seem to be victims of relational aggression slightly more often than males; males are more frequently bullies than females. For early adolescents, the prevalence of aggressive acts is higher in the category of physical and verbal aggression in the school context. From the qualitative part (interviews), nine thematic frameworks appeared, with low self-esteem emerging as the most important issue, and one related to social context and coping strategies. From the research findings, we can highlight that self-esteem is a central theme of any intervention concerning children and adolescents with disabilities who have been experiencing violence. In the process of empowerment, it is essential to develop an individual's social relations and appropriate coping strategies.