educational and developmental psychology

Aggression in childhood: the causes of aggression in children

April 1, 2024

The aggression it is the behavior carried out with the intention of damaging a living being that wishes to avoid this treatment. The intention of the actor defines the "aggressive act", not the consequences.

Development of Childhood Aggression

Aggressive acts are classified in two categories:

Hostile aggression: when the target of the aggressor is the injury or injury of the victim.
Instrumental aggression : when the main goal of the aggressor is to gain access to objects, space or privileges.

Origins of childhood aggression

Babies less than 1 year old can get irritated, although they do not attack (there is no intention). At one year, children show rivalry for toys and, at 2 years, are more likely to resolve disputes through negotiation and participation. This process can be adaptive, as it teaches the children to achieve their goals without violence.

Development trends in aggression

With age, the aggression of children changes dramatically:

Between 2 and 3 years Physical aggression is instrumental, since children focus on toys, sweets, etc.

Between the 3 and 5 years , it happens to be verbal rather than physical.

Between the 4 and 7 years , the aggressiveness begins to be hostile. The acquisition of skills to consider the point of view of others (they infer if the intention is harmful) brings with it revenge. It is from primary school when children are vengeful.

Sexual differences in the development of aggression

The genetic factor explains part of the fact that children have a greater propensity for aggressive behavior due to the production of testosterone. Despite this, the social factor plays a very important role in determining masculine and feminine aggressiveness. After a year and a half, the typification of gender, which is a socially agreed construct, marks the differences between individuals and the way of expressing hostile behavior.

Parents also influence the development of aggressiveness, because those who play more rudely and aggressively, those who reward their antisocial actions, or even give them gifts, encourage their unfavorable behaviors.

The biological basis of aggressive behavior

It can be hypothesized that aggressive behavior is adaptive in environments in which competitiveness is a determining factor when dividing limited resources. Both hostile and instrumental aggression can be the result of (and lead to) power relationships in which there is a dominated and a dominated, both entering a dynamic in which the natural selection it becomes clear. However, it should be noted that in the case of human beings, behavior is modulated by a morality that does not occur in the rest of species. This morality, like the expressions of the genes that can intervene in the unleashing of aggressive behaviors, has a biological substrate that is modified by the interaction with the environment and with other beings.

The passage from an ethics centered on one's ego to one focused on social responsibility is a process deeply complex and dynamic from the point of view of biology, but there is a certain consensus that it plays a decisive role in prefrontal cortex, located in the anterior part of the brain. This brain region plays an important role in decision-making and the initiation of planned activities with a goal temporarily projected into the future. Thanks to the prefrontal cortex the human being is able to establish objectives beyond the immediate gratification, and to make decisions based on the most abstract concepts.

Therefore, it also plays an important role when it comes to socializing, since living in society means, among other things, postpone certain rewards for the sake of a benefit projected temporarily and that affects the community. According to Fuster (2014), for example, Part of the social behavior of children and young people is explained by a prefrontal cortex that has not yet matured enough and is not sufficiently connected with the neuronal groups of the brain that mediate in the creation of emotions and the behavior oriented towards the satisfaction of needs (this connection is being established later to the rhythm of the biological clock, and will reach its climax during the third decade of life, between 25 - 30 years). In addition, neuronal groups whose activation evokes general ethical principles and abstract concepts find the prefrontal cortex a mediator that will allow them to play a role in decision making. From this point of view, a good development of the prefrontal lobe usually leads to a reduction in the expression of aggressive behaviors.

From aggression to antisocial behavior

During adolescence a peak in antisocial behavior is shown and then reduced. The girls use relational aggression (humiliation, exclusion, rumors to damage self-esteem, etc.), while children, opting for stealing, missing class, and sexual misconduct.

Is aggression a stable attribute?

Effectively: aggression is a stable attribute. Children who are relatively aggressive at an early age tend to be older. Clearly, the learning capacity and the plasticity of the brain (ability to change according to interactions with the environment) mean that this is not always the case. The epigenetic factor must also be taken into account.

Individual differences in aggressive behavior

Only a small minority can be considered a chronic aggressor (involved in most conflicts). The investigations indicate 2 classes of very aggressive children:

Proactive aggressors : children who find it easy to perform aggressive acts and who rely on aggression as a means to solve social problems or achieve personal goals.

Reactive aggressors : children who exhibit high levels of hostile vengeful aggression because they attribute excessive hostile intentions to others and can not control their anger enough to seek solutions that are not aggressive to social problems.

Each of these groups processes the information about their perceptions and their own behaviors in a different way, which means that their decision-making style also has a differentiated style.

Social information processing theory of Dodge aggression

Given the ambiguity of a conflict, aggressive children employ an attributional bias.

Reactive children use a hostile attribution bias to think that others are hostile to them. This causes them to be rejected by teachers and peers, which accentuates their bias.

Proactive children are more inclined to formulate meticulously a instrumental goal (for example: "I will teach the careless companions to be more careful with me").

Perpetrators and victims of peer aggression

The habitual harassers are people who have not suffered abuse of their own, but at home they have witnessed. They think they can make a lot of profit from their victims with little effort.

The victims are of 2 types:

Passive victims : weak people who hardly resist

Provocative victims: restless people, opponents who irritate their harassers. They tend to present hostile attribution bias and have suffered abuse at home.

The victims are at serious risk of social adaptation.

Cultural and subcultural influences on aggression

Some cultures and subcultures are more aggressive than others.

Spain, followed by the US and Canada are the most aggressive industrialized countries.

Social classes also influence, where the lower social class is more aggressive. Several can be the causes:

They use punishment frequently

Approval of aggressive solutions in conflicts

Parents who lead stressful lives control their children less

Individual differences also affect the development of aggression.

Coercive family environments: breeding grounds for aggression and crime

Aggressive children often live in coercive environments where most interactions between family members are an attempt to stop the other from irritating them. Coercive interactions are maintained by negative reinforcement (any stimulus whose elimination or termination as the consequence of the act increases the probability that it will repeat itself).

Over time the problem children become resistant to punishment and get the attention of parents who do not show affection.

It is difficult to break this circle due to its multidimensional influence (it affects all the members of the family).

Coercive environments as contributors to chronic crime

A coercive environment contributes to a hostile attribution bias and to a chain of self-limitation that causes the rejection of other children. As a result, they tend to be isolated from other children in school and reunited with others of their same condition. The interaction between them usually ends in the formation of groups with bad habits.

Once in adolescence it is more difficult to correct these people, prevention is the best bet to control it.

Methods to control aggression and antisocial behavior

→ Creation of non-aggressive environments

A simple approach is to create play areas that minimize the likelihood of conflict such as eliminating toys such as guns or tanks, providing ample space for vigorous play, etc.

→ Elimination of rewards for aggression

Parents or teachers can reduce the frequency of aggression by identifying and eliminating its reinforcing consequences and stimulating alternative means to achieve personal goals. They could use two methods:

Incompatible response technique: non-punitive method of behavior modification by which adults ignore undesirable behavior, while reinforcing the behaviors that are incompatible with those responses.

Time out technique: method in which children who behave in an aggressive manner are forced to withdraw from the scene until they are considered to be prepared to act appropriately.

→ Social cognitive interventions

These techniques help them: