Adolescents' judgements of the seriousness of disruptive behaviour at school and of the sanction appropriate for dealing with it.

Disruptive behaviour is a daily event in many secondary schools. The goal of this study is to discriminate adolescents' attitudes towards disruptive behaviour in school from their attitudes towards the authors of such behaviour. The study was conducted using a questionnaire referring to situations which disrupt the class. Adolescents (n=172) estimated the seriousness of the action involved in each situation and said how those responsible should be dealt with. The factors taken into account were: the subjects' gender, whether s/he is actively involved in disruptive behaviour or not, the gender of the central character and the nature of the disturbance. The results show that: (1) judgement of the seriousness of the behaviour is more severe than the sanctions thought to be appropriate. This is particularly so for violent disruptions; (2) pupils who are themselves disruptive are more tolerant than non-disruptive pupils, both in their judgement of the seriousness of action and in their ideas about sanctions.