Violence in schools in the context of family problems

The article discusses school violence. Absence of large-scale research in the country determined the choice of the questionnaire developed by German colleagues, adapted as a primary tool of survey in schools. The experience of conducting research in the Nizhny Novgorod schools showed that educational system is a closed one and is often unprepared to participate in polls, including those relating to urgent social problems. Research results also clearly indicate presence of violence in Russian school and allow us to estimate its extent. School violence is diverse in form: from "light" verbal version to fierce physical coercion; in the Nizhny Novgorod schools vandalism, violence against teachers, and other forms also exist. Experience of students' participation in acts of violence is considered from the position of the aggressor as well as from the perspective of the victim; socio-demographic factors (type of school, gender, age) are taken into account. In the article destructive actions of students are analyzed from the point of view of family (socializing) experience. The family, as primary medium of forming child's personality, creates social/regulatory parameters of his/her activity outside family, including the school. The research materials describe relationship with the parents of schoolchildren: subjective students' opinion of the relationship with their close adults and parenting style; parental involvement in the school life of the child; communication style and methods of influence on the child. Nizhny Novgorod schoolboy/girl does not always feel secure within the family. His/her well-being and comfort is destroyed by ignoring his/her concerns and interests, by application of hard (using physical force) methods of influence. Analysis of the data demonstrates correlation between advantaged/disadvantaged practices of parent-child relations, and students' involvement in the situation of school violence as both aggressor and victim.