School Violence from Childhood to Youth

School violence has become the focus of attention not only to researchers but to all those involved in educational pursuits and society in general. This is due to the rising tide of violence occurring in various fields of human activity. The point of this study is to describe the violence narrated by students from different educational levels, for this, the focus group technique allowed recovery of the individual and collective discourses of 37 students (16 females and 21 males, aged 3 to 22 years) from various educational levels in Xalapa, Mexico. Qualitative analysis was performed using ATLAS. ti; the results indicate the existence of violence at all grade levels studied. However, the forms, types, places and direction of the violence, as well the kind of expression changed from the pre-school children to the university students. The results indicate that peer directed violence occurs most often as psychological violence. With regards to the predominant forms, kicking and verbal aggression are manifested mainly in the bathroom and open spaces. The data from each grade level allow us to conclude that violent behavior is age-related and cultural influences determine its expression.