ABSTRACT
Dan is an eleven-year-old fifth-grader in a Boston public elementary school who is Identified by his teachers and classmates as the biggest bully in the school. Dan lives in a subsidized housing project with his father (an African-American who is disabled and unemployed), mother (who is white), two of his three brothers, and one of his two sisters. He identified fighting In his neighborhood as a big stress in his life: “I’m scared to death of fighting there, but when I have to fight, I have to, to protect myself.” Although guns and gangs were commonplace in Dan’s neighborhood, his family culture—particularly his father’s proactive policy toward fighting—seemed most influential in his chronic fighting. Indeed, fighting was a family affair. Dan’s older brother taught him to fight in the first grade, and Dan’s sister, who also was referred for pair counseling, “likes to beat up on him”; often their play fighting turns into more serious fighting. Dan also reported that his father’s intemperate drinking was a stress in his family life.
