Aggressive behaviors in childhood

The family constitutes the place par excellence where children learn to behave themselves and with others, that is, it is an agent of child socialization. It is the aggressiveness, one of the forms of behavior that are learned at home, and where intrafamily relationships exert an influence on their generation and maintenance. If the aggressiveness in children and everything around him wakes you a certain interest, we invite you to continue reading this Psychology Line article, about Aggressive behaviors in childhood.

1. Conceptual introduction
2. Etiology of aggressive behavior:
3. Treatment of aggressive behavior in childhood

Conceptual introduction

When children exhibit aggressive behaviors in your childhood And they grow with them being part of their behavioral repertoire, they become adolescents and adults with serious problems of personal interrelation, which can generate antisocial behaviors, alcoholism, difficulties in adapting to work and family, and in the worst case they arrive to exhibit criminal behavior and to suffer severe psychiatric affectation.

¿What do we understand by behavior?. We can define it as: way of acting an individual, observable, measurable and modifiable.

By Aggressive behavior We understand, a way of acting children characterized by:

1. Access of anger.
2. Acts of disobedience Before the authority and home rules.
3. Threats verbal.
4. Damage to material things.
5. Deterioration in social and academic activity due to episodes of rabies.
6. Discussions with the brothers, with parents and other family members.
7. Screams.
8. Disturb other family members.
9. Being or resentful.
10. Litigation.

All these characteristics must be presented in a adequate frequency, intensity and duration To think about a behavioral pattern.

Some characteristics almost universal of aggressive behavior are:

• Highly impulsive.
• Relatively refractory for the effects of experience to modify your problem behavior.
• Lack of skill to delay gratification.
• Low tolerance to frustrations.

Etiology of aggressive behavior:

Theories about The causes of aggression They are multiple, they go from:

1. Consider biological factors At the origin of these behaviors. They support three investigations: a) A dysfunction of the inhibitory mechanisms of the central nervous system; b) the emergence of a different emotionality; and c) effects of androgens on humans's behavior.
2. The psychodynamic theories, who consider that there are innate factors in the individual who lead him to present aggressive behavior. It is a search for pleasure, it is a primary instinct (destruction or death).
3. The Learning theories, which are the ones we will address on this subject.

Numerous psychological theories state that The agression, It is a pattern of acquired responses depending on certain environmental stimuli (family) according to a variety of procedures; some of them are:

• The aggression acquired by classical conditioning for the use of awards and punishments as behavioral molders. Ellis (1986).
• The aggression acquired by social learning through observation. Bandura (1986).
• Skiner's learning theory (1952), which shows that aggression is acquired by operating conditioning.
• Maslow (1964) gives the aggression a cultural origin and says that "a reaction to the frustration of biological needs or given the inability to satisfy them".
• Mussen et al punishment.

Most parents have learned to perform their role through the observation of their own upbring Based on sexism, machismo and authoritarianism. Terms that generate a large number of concept errors and that the same Venezuelan social evolution has been in charge of modifying over time, but however they continue to wreak havoc on the Venezuelan social structure itself.

As part of the socialization process, parents need to be aware of the influence they exert on their children Through their example, which according to social learning tells us that children learn ways of behaving based on their parents' behavior.

Starting from the premise that aggressive behaviors have their origin and maintenance in the family, The Psychiatric, Psychological and Sexological Research Center of Venezuela, of behavioral cognitive current, has developed a series of recommendations to obtain a good style of parenting and education from children, these are:

1. Frequent and satisfactory communication between parents and children.
2. Encourage mutual collaboration among all the members of the home.
3. Effective demonstrations of affection.
4. The family reunion to establish the rules, give and receive affection and share.
5. Stimulate trust.
6. Promote assertiveness.
7. Take into account recreation as part of life.
8. Establish at home clearly and precisely, the duties and rights of each of the family members and expose the responsibility of assuming the consequences of the acts committed.
9. Appropriately apply the affection-authority binomial.

If despite the above, the child (especially preschool), issues aggressive behaviors, the following indications offer suggestions to handle these behaviors:

• A child must learn that aggressive behavior of any kind is unacceptable.
• It is a mistake to respond with aggression to a child's aggressive behavior.
• At the time your child issues aggressive behavior, take it to a corner of the room and explain simple and firmly that it is not allowed to hit, bite, kick, etc.
• Avoid using expressions against the child, such as "you are bad, evil, unbearable", etc.
• Reinforce positively when it behaves correctly and kindly to others.
• Pay special attention to your behavior in group situations, and be ready to intervene if necessary.

If these behaviors increase in frequency and remain in time, altering in good functioning of the child and her family, then it is time to go to specialized help.

Treatment of aggressive behavior in childhood

Based on different authors such as Bianco (1991), Coleman (1996), Kasdin (1989), Moles (1991), Satir (1991), the following treatment plan for aggressive behaviors in children is proposed:

Precise diagnosis and efficient evaluation of aggressive behavior.

Through a good medical history, it is important to carry out a behavioral etiology of aggressive behavior, and an operational definition of the same. With the precise diagnosis, the treatment to be followed is planned.

Children's behavior therapy.

Specifically oriented towards problem behavior and their treatment, applying behavioral modification techniques.

Family therapy.

During this process, the therapist will evaluate the family in relation to: communication, family relations, power structures, the authority-affects binomial, etc.

Fathers training.

Parents are trained as behavioral generators in their children, in punishment application techniques, reinforcement, modeling etc.

Cognitive therapy

Through the intervention of the child's cognitive processes (thoughts), concepts are clarified, myths are included, visualizations, neurolinguistic programming, etc.

To conclude we can say that aggressiveness is a non -operational behavior, which brings short and long term consequences for those who emit it and for those around it, being able to become a way of behaving, as a general form of daily life and triggered really unfortunate events for all involved. In addition the family and their relationships arise as a generator of children's aggressive behaviors.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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