Armed Conflict and Aggressive Behaviour : A Study of Adolescent Girls of Jammu and Kashmir Regions

Kashmir valley has been witnessing killing, strikes, protest demonstrations, curfews, human right violations and many other forms of violence from last few decades. Past literature has confirmed that one of the main outcomes of exposure to violence is the increase in the level of aggression. Aggression can be defined as any behaviour intended to hurt or harm someone. In adolescent girls aggression is not a unitary construct: it can be physical, verbal or relational. Emotions that adolescent girls internalise frequently emerge as anger and this anger is then acted out as aggression towards self or others. The present study tries to compares the level of aggression among girls of Jammu and Kashmir Regions. The sample of 100 students studying in 11th and 12th standard with age range between 15-19 years was taken. The data was collected from two groups living in two regions; Kashmir (considered to be high affected region) and Jammu (considered to be relatively low affected region).Aggression scale developed by the researcher ,was used to assess the level of aggression ofboth the groups of girls. Students t-test was used to compare the groups. The fmdings suggest that two groups of girls differ significantly in terms of their aggression level, with girls from Kashmir region showing significantly higher level of aggression as compared to girls from Jammu region.