Management of Aggressive and Violent Behavior in the Schools.

Aggressive and violent behaviors are increasing among children and youth in America's schools. Although many children and adolescents occasionally exhibit aggressive and sometimes antisocial behaviors in the course of development, an alarming increase is taking place in the significant number of youth who confront their parents, teachers, and schools with persistent threatening and destructive behaviors. Students who exhibit chronic patterns of hostile, aggressive, and defiant behaviors frequently are characterized as having oppositional disorders or conduct disorders (Kazdin, 1987; Home & Sayger, 1990), and their behaviors are increasingly identified as antisocial (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-Ill-R) (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) defines oppositional defiant disorder as