Aggressive behavior in children and behavioral changes are the most common problem in childhood mental health visits, especially in children, with rates ranging from 35 to 50 children in a group of 100.
You don’t have to go far to see examples of very aggressive behaviors, we see several articles in the children’s diary denigrating their anger at others, such as the case of the young man who stabbed his mother because the Internet at home was not available. This is a particularly serious case of aggression because of its consequences, but milder cases are extremely common and no less worrying.
- In this sense.
- It is inevitable that we will wonder whether the social concern about an increase in the severity and amount of antisocial behaviors is real or not.
- An example of this very common severity are aggressive behaviors in daily life in the family context.
It is surprising how fast this type of behavior develops in children and the lack of tools for parents to face and correct the situation, parents have been appearing in the sense of not controlling their children since the age of 4 or 5. and during that time they are verbally and physically abused.
Explaining aggressive behavior in children is complex. It is not possible to seek a perfect cause-and-effect relationship based solely on individual and familiar aspects. We need to look at a broader context. There are some social variables in this context, and it is in these variables that most prevention programs are based, this analysis is not simple, but it is the reality, we cannot fail to say that there have been several social changes in recent decades. changes that refer to values and beliefs about the styles of education that may have contributed in one way or another to the aggravation of the problem.
The word aggression derives from the Latin ‘agredi’, meaning ‘attack’, attack or assault implies that someone is determined to impose his will on another person or object, with the threat of physical or psychological harm or already causing such damage. For children, aggression usually occurs directly, as an act of violence against another person. This act of violence can be physical, like kicking, pushing or even screaming and screaming.
The act of violence can also be verbal, such as insults, profephumphum or threats. Another form of aggression would be one in which the child throws objects at people who oppose his desires.
Aggressive and antisocial behavior are related in some way, although they are different things, however, it is already known that when the aggressive behavior of the child is quite stable, the likelihood of antisocial behaviors during adolescence is quite high.
On the other hand, there are several other factors that influence the creation and maintenance of behavior, one of these factors is even genetic, already a relationship has been found between variation in serotonin hormone levels and aggressive behaviors, also found an interaction between child abuse and monoamine oxidase (MAO) levels, which also plays a role in this set.
In addition to these genetic determinants, there are other aspects that influence the aggression of children, which concern, for example, parents who try to impose very strict discipline, using violence on a recurring basis. and antisocial behavior. In any case, not all abused children end up becoming torturers as they grow up.
In addition, other factors may be associated with aggression. These factors may be related to the mother’s age, the ability to adapt the family, changes such as attention deficit, child temperament, type of parent-child relationship, lack of family cohesion, or inconsistency in the path of child discipline and repression, among others.
During childhood, the family is the context that most influences the child, the interactions between parents and children shape aggressive behavior, particularly in the management of the consequences that arise, the problem is that the child can generalize what he learns about the usefulness of his Aggression, thinking that in one way or another, the fact that his parents use it as a valid tool also makes it ideal to get what we want , even with the people we love.
The kind of discipline parents exercise about their children is also important. Aggressive behavior in children is mainly encouraged through a combination of relaxed and unre demanding discipline with hostile attitudes on the part of parents.
Those who are not demanding always do what the child wants, responding to all their requests. In a shallow look the child has a lot of freedom, but when the child does something that displeases loved ones, the reaction is totally disproportionate. This lack of coherence ends up settling so that the child disorients, and begins to mimic the disproportionate behavior of parents when they don’t like something.
Inconsistency in parental behavior occurs when they disapprove of the child’s aggression and, when it occurs, they punish it so that they themselves begin to act aggressively; Parents who stop aggression with different forms of aggressive behavior are less likely to encourage aggressive actions in their offspring.
This inconsistency can also be demonstrated when parents punish the child for a certain reason, but at another time they do nothing against the same behavior. What we can see here is the inconsistency of the information given to the child.
The treatment of aggressive behaviors in children is not only based on reducing or eliminating these behaviors, we must also establish and encourage other alternative behaviors.
There are several procedures that we can do for this purpose, among them are the procedures to control the stimuli of aggressive behavior, that is, what usually happens before, another option is to model the behavior, making it non-aggressive, in addition to reducing aversive stimulation and controlling the consequences.
In addition, there must be a “parent school”. That is, teach parents the basic characteristics of the child and the techniques to use to change the child’s behavior. It is a fundamental part of the program that seeks to eliminate the aggression of the child. the boy’s repertoire.
As we have seen, aggressive behaviors in children is a worrying fact that is increasing, the role of the family, especially parents, is crucial in the fight against these behaviors, a specialist psychologist can greatly help families with this problem.
References
Berkl, L. (1999). Child development and adolescence. Madrid: Prentice-Hall.
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (2005). How to talk to your children and how to listen to them. Medici.