Objective To explore the links between violence and the characteristics of State-Trait anger， coping style in high school students. Methods Totally 1 403 high school students from Grade One and Two of two high school in Pudong New District in Shanghai were selected in September 2010. The method of combining student self-report with head teacher-evaluation was used to screen violent behaviors. They were assessed with State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory for Children and Adolescent（ STAXI-CA） and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire（ SCSQ）. Results The prevalence of violence among students was 7.7%（ 108/ 1 403）， and with higher rate in boys than in girls（ 6.8% vs 0.9%，P＜0.05）. In boys， violent group got higher scores in State-anger， Trait-anger and Anger-expression/out than non-violent group（ P＜0.05）， but lower scores in Anger-control/in（ P＜0.05）. In girls， violent group got higher scores in State-anger（ P＜0.05）. The violent group also got lower scores in positive-coping（ P ＜ 0.05）， but higher scores in negative-coping（ P ＜ 0.05）. Positive-coping were negatively correlated with State-anger， Trait-anger and Anger-expression（ r=-0.205， -0.147；P＜ 0.05）， while positively correlated with Anger-control（ r=0.320， 0.381；P＜ 0.05）. Meanwhile， negative-coping were positively correlated with State-anger， Trait-anger and Anger-expression（ r=0.183，0.239， 0.199，0.225；P＜0.05）； while negatively correlated with Anger-control/out（ r=-0.064，P＜0.05）. Trait-anger （OR=1.098） and negative coping（ OR=1.088） were risk factors for violence， while positive coping（ OR=0.937） were protective factors. Conclusions Violence in high school students may be related to Trait-anger and coping style. Schools should pay attention to State-Trait anger of students， identify and help students to reduce the negative emotions early in order to reduce violence.