Child aggression is linked to negative outcomes later in adolescence. Some of the negative outcomes include delinquency, conduct problems, substance use, academic difficulties and poor adjustment in the society. The defining symptoms include verbal and physical aggression and childhood psychiatric disorders like, oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. According to the American Psychiatric Association, the prevalence of the childhood psychiatric disorders is higher in males than females. There is the need to identify and treat aggressive behaviors early since therapists toda frequently face damaging impact of aggression and violence on the people exposed to it (Marcus, 34).
Introduction
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Aggression is behaving with a goal of harming another living being who has a motivate to avoid such treatment. Aggression might arise from the innate drives and a response to frustration, manifested by attacking and destructive behavior. The middle childhood is a stage of development between the ages of 6 and 12 years of age. During this stage, the child develops socially, emotionally physical and cognitive wise. The development occurs simultaneously, and every aspect of development has an impact on the other aspects. In this paper, we are going to look at children in the middle childhood and how they cope with aggression during this stage.
Types of aggression
There are different types of aggression; overt, proactive, reactive, and relational aggression. The overt aggression involves the harmful physical and verbal acts of aggression directed towards others, self or properties. The overtly aggressive children fight either at school only, at home only or in both settings. The reactive aggression is unplanned responsive aggressive behavior to evoking stimuli, real or perceived. In this case, the child has a negative outcome in the presence of stimuli. The reactive aggressive child is in most cases isolated and is disliked by others because of his aggressive reaction to situations. As for the proactive reaction, the child plans with a goal in mind. In most cases, the child is calm as he does the attack on the other children (Marcus, 38).
The relational aggression is when a child purpose to damage or interfere with the other peoples relationships, psychological wellbeing, and reputation through manipulation. Children in the middle childhood with relational aggression often try to exclude another child from the peer group because he wants attention and feel superior. Research shows that relationally aggressive children are more likely to be emotionally and socially maladjusted, rejected by the peers, defiant and impulsive compared to the normal peers. They always want to feel in control of other people.The aggressive children often think that aggressive solutions are the best way to handle an interpersonal dispute (Marcus, 40).
During the middle childhood, the children begin to note their internal qualities and form self-esteem and self concept. In this stage, the children lose their rigid views on topics as consequences and fairness and reveal higher level of thinking about wrong and right. Some of the characters of children with aggression are problems with emotional regulation and severe, manipulative behaviors. The child might be aggressive by spreading rumors, excluding others, arguing, bullying both verbally and physically, striking back in anger, threatening and engaging in physical attacks (Marcus, 43).
Causes of aggression
Childhood aggression is an indication of broader syndrome often involving defiant and oppositional behavior towards the adults and covert rule-breaking behaviors. The behaviors can lead to more serious violations such as stealing, assault, substance abuse and vandalism. The aggression can be controlled easily if early detected or prevented. The various factors that contribute to a child developing aggressive behaviors include family and personal aspects, early social interactions and risks in adolescence (Konner, 56).
Poor parenting practices such as poor supervision and monitoring, in addition to high rates of, harsh and inconsistent discipline are proven to children’s aggressive behavior. The parents discipline ought to be consistent and appropriate to the circumstance and situation at hand. Within the social interactions, the child processes social information aggressively when they experience negative reactions from peers and teachers. The children in this situation express high levels oppositional behavior and aggression with the expectation that aggressive solutions will work. Their social bond to school weakens due to poor performance that is as a result of poor social behavior of aggression hence vulnerable to deviant peer groups. During adolescence stage, there are many risk factors, experienced by the children ranging from delinquent acts and substance use to school failure (Konner, 58).
Dealing with aggression
When addressing aggression, it is vital to explore how it manifests in the middle childhood stage so that the children can be taught on how to handle this emotion in a healthier manner. The positive behavior can be taught in various ways ranging from using therapeutic setting to family and people around the child (Konner, 57)
One way that the children in the middle-childhood deal with aggression is by seeking professional help. The psychiatry therapists use therapies that can explain the behavior of children and the possible solutions to these problems. One of the therapies is the Gestalt therapy which awakens people to get on with their lives better than they were managing it before. According to the Gestalt therapy, believes that people are born with ability and resources that make them be in a rewarding contact with other human beings thus leading to a satisfying and creative life. When the process is interfered with, then the child sticks in fixed patterns and beliefs about themselves that get in their way. The aim of the Gestalt therapy is to uncover these patterns which are still active and affecting the child’s present life (Killen and Robert, 73).
According to the Gestalts theory, children have a holistic entity and thus the sum total of the emotional and spiritual aspects, physical, language, thought, and behavior is more than its components. These are the aspects that the Gestalts therapy puts focus. The Gestalts approach emphasizes on understanding the processes of awareness and raising client’s awareness of their relationship with the other people and the impacts on both the environment and themselves. The child’s awareness during the Gestalt’s is promoted to shift its focus on the past emotions and unfinished businesses to the present (Killen and Robert, 80).
Another way that the children in the middle childhood stage deal with aggression is through the play therapy. The objective of the play therapy is to understand the child and provide an acceptable avenue for the child to express unfulfilled wants, feelings, and needs. Research has shown improved attitude and behavior outside the playroom after the child learns how to effectively release aggressive feelings. According to Killen and Robert, (74), play is the most natural means of self expression and an essential component of childhood development. The child releases pent up feelings of anxiety, confusion, insecurity, fear, aggression, and disappointments. In addition, the child learns to bring these feelings to the surface, master them, deal with them and then abandon them (Killen and Robert, 74).
Most play therapists find it difficult to respond to acts of aggression because t5he acts in the playroom are often directed towards themselves. The child’s antisocial acts are explored in terms of its appropriateness and identifying the ideas in the Childs mind that led to the aggression. The therapists refrain from scold or punishment of the child on disclosure of the ideas (Killen and Robert, 76).
Schools have come up with programs that aim at improving the child’s cognitive behavior. The structured group programs focus on both the youths with aggressive behaviors and those at risk of the aggressive behavior problem. The program offers cognitive, behavioral treatments such as problem solving and anger management training. The treatment outcome research indicates that the combination of interventions of both parents and the youth is the most effective in dealing with the aggression. The parent program involves training the parents to improve parental monitoring and achieve consistency in discipline (Killen and Robert, 77).
The Anger Control Program, developed by Eva Feindler and the colleagues has its focus on teaching the adolescences to modify their own aggressive and impulsive behaviors when faced with stressful and aversive situations. The program helps children in the middle age stage improve their self control and problem solving ability (Killen and Robert, 78).
The youths at high risk of aggression undergo intensive programs of Anger Coping to prevent them from getting to deeper levels of aggression. The programs aim at reducing the youths’ anger and behavior problems. It provides coping and problem solving skills to deal with anger and resulting aggressive behavior. The sessions of the program cover fundamental aspects such as goal setting, perspective taking, organizational skills, emotional awareness, relaxation training, and social problem solving and developing appear relations (Killen and Robert, 79).
The children in the middle childhood, in the U.S., have minimized watching and playing of hostile video games. Video games are linked to aggressive behavior in children. The physiological effects of playing violent have been found to be greater in children who have already shown high aggressive tendencies (Killen and Robert, 83).
The Middle aged children are encouraged to develop hypothetical and abstract thinking. This way the children will learn to contemplate the possibilities outside the realm of the current. The children are noted to improve in their deductive reasoning skills which result to hypothetical thinking. With a hypothetical thinking, the child is able to apply advanced thinking and logical processes to social matters like interpersonal relationships and friendship. They are also asked to meditate on the thinking process itself. This helps children in social cognition, which results in self – consciousness and better self control thus effective studying of the child (Killen and Robert, 85).
Self esteem and personality are some of t5he dispositional variables that influence the adjustment of the children in school and the social setting. The environmental factors such perceived stress, living environment, and parental caring also have an impact on the way the child gets along in school. The children require help to overcome the challenges. According to Lazarus proactive coping, the children are taught behavioral efforts to manage particular external and internal demands that are appraised as exceeding resources of the person. The focus is on how children cope with past and ongoing stressors. In this program, the anticipated stressful events that have not occurred are dealt with by use of positive psychology (Killen and Robert, 87).
The emphasis is laid on the emotional growth of the children. The children are taught to be aware of their own and other people’s feelings. They teach children to understand the conflicting emotions and get familiarized with the culture’s rules for moral expression. The children are encouraged to practice emotional self-regulation in terms of attention, control of emotions and behavior (Arsenio, 67).
The parents are advised to use lesser direct management and more discussion with their children and make them bear the consequences of behavior. Divorce has been noted to have an adverse effect on the social behavior of the children. The children are at an increased risk of antisocial behavior and might end up dropping out of school as a result of the parent’s divorce. Therefore, the parents have a responsibility to seek professional assistant in advance for the sake of the children social being(Arsenio, 70).
As much as peers have their positive impacts on the child’s social growth, poor peer groups can mislead the child who might end up as a social misfit. The programs are designed to assist the children choose the positive peer group that bring along positivity in character. Peer groups offer friendship which help children learn how to communicate and cooperate. The quarrels within the friends assist in conflict resolution skills. A child who is friendless suffers long term effects of anti-socialism, low self esteem and poor self concepts. These aspects affect the performance of the children academically (Arsenio, 74).
In conclusion, children perceive high stress in their social, academic, interpersonal and financial challenges and hence require adequate support in order to avoid maladjustment. Maladjustments have been noted to contribute to the poor performance of children in school. This is the reason why researchers have taken responsibility and explored the types of aggression, the reasons why children get aggressive and the ways that they can be helped to improve their character. Programs that aim at training both the parents and the children have been put in place as a control and preventive measure against the aggression. The parents are trained on better parental care, monitoring and consistent punishment whereas the children are taught on emotions and anger control. They are taught on how to think hypothetically and face the social problems without any conflicts. Gestalts approach emphasizes on understanding the processes of awareness and raising client’s awareness of their relationship with the other people and the impacts on both the environment and themselves. The play therapy aim at understanding the child and provide an acceptable avenue for the child to express unfulfilled wants, feelings, and needs. Early detection of symptoms of aggression helps prevent the child from getting much affected by the situation. Aggression has negative impacts on the social and academic performance of the child.
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