On June 25 and 26, 2026, the Symposium “Well-Being and Relationships of Violence” took place at ZeBUSS at the European University of Flensburg. Berit Breins and Meike Wagner presented findings from a mixed-methods study they conducted in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Michaela Gläser-Zikuda on school alienation, aggressive behavior, and unexcused absences among lower secondary school students.
A central message of the presentation was that aggressive behavior should not be viewed in isolation as an individual problem. Rather, the qualitative findings suggest that students also describe it as a reaction to experienced injustice, a lack of support, and insufficient conflict intervention. At the same time, many students do not react aggressively, but instead withdraw, refuse to participate, or distance themselves internally from school.
The findings thus encourage us to examine more closely what is understood as aggression in the school context and what relational and institutional experiences underlie different forms of reaction.