Write a note on aggressive behavior in childhood.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Instrumental aggression, or aggression used as an instrument to reach a goal, is the most common type of aggression in early childhood. Between ages 2½ and 5, children commonly struggle over toys and control of space. Instrumental aggression surfaces mostly during social play; children who fight the most also tend to be the most sociable and competent.

As children develop more self-control and become better able to express themselves verbally, they typically shift from showing aggression with blows to doing it with words.

Aggression is an exception to the generalization that boys and girls are more similar than different. In all cultures studied, as among most mammals, boys are more physically aggressive than girls. This gender difference is apparent by age 2.

However, when aggression is looked at more closely, it becomes apparent that, at least in the United States, boys and girls also tend to use different kinds of aggression. Boys engage in more overt (direct) aggression and tend to openly direct aggressive acts at a target. Girls, by contrast, tend to engage in a form of indirect social aggression known as relational aggression. This more subtle kind of aggression consists of damaging or interfering with relationships, reputation, or psychological well-being, often through teasing, manipulation, ostracism, or bids for control. It may include spreading rumors, name-calling, put-downs, or excluding someone from a group. Among preschoolers, it tends to be direct and face-to-face.

Children who are intensely emotional and low in self-control, or who have a difficult temperament, tend to express anger aggressively. Parental behaviors strongly influence aggressiveness. Aggressiveness may result from a combination of a stressful and unstimulating home atmosphere, harsh discipline, lack of maternal warmth and social support, family dysfunction, exposure to aggressive adults and neighborhood violence, poverty, and transient peer groups, which prevent stable friendships.