Gender Differences in Aggression among University Students

Abstract

The issue of aggression among students at university is a frequent topic of study that is linked with the safety, mental health and functioning of university students. The present paper focuses on the research gaps and gender differences in aggression among university students by conducting a systematic review and synthesis of secondary data from empirical research published from 2018– 2025. Following Buss and Perry's (1992) model and many cross-cultural studies, aggression is defined on four dimensions: physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility. The literature searched and the statistics revealed that the male students consistently reported higher scores in physical aggression as compared to the female students, whereas the findings for verbal aggression, anger, hostility, and relational aggression were much more varied, with some studies reporting similar or even higher scores for female students on the indirect and relational forms of aggression (Loudin et al., 2003; Shaban & Kumar, 2016). Biological, psychological and sociocultural explanations for these patterns are explored further, including an examination of hormones, personality characteristics, socialisation processes and cultural norms surrounding the expression of anger. Five secondary-data tables are provided, which combine sample characteristics, subscores from sixteen university-based studies, prevalence rates of aggression, and predictors of aggression. The paper emphasizes the reality of gender differences in aggression, but suggests that this is only in the sense of form, context and socialisation/cultural expectation, not biological, and suggests gender-sensitive interventions, campus counselling programmes and further longitudinal research.