Passive Aggression - A High School Social Skills Activity

Passive Aggression Worksheet

This resource addresses how to handle passive aggression from others, teaching students to consider others' perspectives to establish what motivates passive-aggressive behaviors and statements, how to stand up for themselves, and how different contexts can yield different responses.

Passive aggression from others is often quite difficult to deal with. It's important to help students understand both how to identify it and how to deal with it, as behaviors and comments of that nature are hostile and our students don't deserve hostility. We typically begin by discussing the term: “passive” referencing an individual wishing to engage in belligerent behavior without being held accountable; and “aggressive,” which references active hostility. Students are supplied with examples of back-handed compliments like “I love your top, you don't look as fat in it.” For each example offered, we discuss the aggression and how the speaker attempts to mask the hostility with passivity. Subsequently, we address how to react to the behavior or comment, encouraging the students to hold the speaker accountable for their hostility to both stand up for themselves and help curb the speaker's passive-aggressive behaviors moving forward.