Keily Marrero
English
Inquiry Based Essay
Its Better to Prevent than to Regret
Research question: What are ways children in America can develop violent tendencies?
Children are like sponges, absorbing information constantly. Which is why its crucial to watch our own behavior as well. In this essay it will show how parenting, trauma, and what children are exposed to see in the media can cause an effect on becoming violent.
At first glance things like media aggression and parenting styles may seem unimportant. But when you take a closer look, its more impactful than you think. Kids at even age 3 years can absorb information of any kind whether it’s good or bad. They form schemas about the world around us based on that information. This is critical in the child’s development because not only does it shape their behavior, but also the way they think. America over the years has had an increase of school shooting and self-harm, and their solution is to ban guns or have tight laws. The real issue starts with the person holding that weapon. How did they get there? Aggression doesn’t start from nowhere without any causes, its always caused by the way they were raised, and the trauma they have experienced. Violent tendencies can be so many things like joining up a gang or doing self-harm, or even bullying. That’s where our focus should be if we want to see a drastic change in our society and in our kids.
Parenting can play a big role on how the child will come out especially the way they think about the world. Its crucial that the parents know that what they do or say in front of their kids can influence their child. To further explain what it means to be violent, this following article shows two different ways one can show violence. According to the article, there’s two kind of violent behaviors, overt violence and reactive violence. In the article “parenting style and proactive adolescent violence” by Ruiz Moreno, the differences between the two is that when you’re in a confrontation, your intention is to hurt the other person, this is called overt violence. Whereas in reactive violence, the person reacts violently as a defensive mechanism. This can be between friends or family. Often this is caused by built up aggression and frustration. When dealing with passive parents this can be easily overlooked. Passive parenting style is when the parents both lack authority in the child’s life. In the same article it is stated, “Moreover, cyberbullying and bullying have been linked with higher levels of parental stress, and with authoritarian and more permissive practices” (Moreno,1). With bullying in schools this is considered overt violence because their intent is to hurt somebody whether that means physically or mentally. Its also said here that often parents who allow this behavior are passive parents. Meaning the mother or father is allowing the child to continue with this behavior by not involving themselves or asserting discipline and respect. Passive parenting permits the child at any age to continue bad habits and actions towards others.
Actions from parents can build up in the memory from an early age which sometimes lead to aggression towards other people. This is a defensive mechanism called displacement. According to the textbook defense mechanism is, “in psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality” (Myers,531). One of the defense mechanisms is displacement and it happens when some has built up anger or stress that causes them to place it out on other people. In this case someone who has grown up with abusive parents have built up resentment and anger towards the years, they see someone who reminds them of them, and they act violently. Because they were younger and smaller, they can’t do anything and now that they are full grown adults they can act out. They take their feelings and place it out on someone who reminds them of the cause of those feelings. This is very important because parents may not see the immediate affect that they have on their children and instead ignore them, or they lack the attention. The more they ignore and mistreat their children, the more resentment and anger builds up which is something we can’t see, only they can feel it. There’re many cases in America and all over the world where people molest or assault someone because that person reminded of their parents. This is called displacement.
There was also a study being done at the university of Minnesota that studies aggressive behaviors from children in kindergarten. They found that all of the kids who were showing signs of aggression have a bad relationship with their mothers. In the article is states, “The researchers concluded that bad parenting during infancy contributed to childhood aggression. The mothers studied handled their children “roughly,” expressed negative feelings towards their kids and had escalating conflicts with them” (Richards-Gustafson,1). They also have seen that often times the kids would act out because of the mistreatment and the mothers would then act more hostile. Bad parenting definitely has an effect of the child’s development and building aggression in them. It may not be obvious at first, but the long-term affects show up eventually during their life.
Trauma at a very early age can even affect the structure of the child’s brain and can potentially affect their way of thinking and behavior. The way kids see trauma at ages 1-3 is different than a teenager because their brain is more developed. In an article it says, “Young children who experience trauma are at particular risk because their rapidly developing brains are very vulnerable. Early childhood trauma has been associated with reduced size of the brain cortex. This area is responsible for many complex functions including memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thinking, language, and consciousness” (Peterson, 1). This means that if the child has experienced a trauma than they are more likely to have problems regulating or coping with certain emotions like anger. This is later backed up n the article, “They may be clingy and fearful of new situations, easily frightened, difficult to console, and/or aggressive and impulsive” (Peterson,1). They also showed a table that divides into two showing the effects of trauma on children between the ages of 0-2 and 3-6. Children with the age of 3-6 that experienced trauma can be verbally abusive and act out in social situations. In the chart it also says that the children can act out or imitate the traumatic event. If the event was violent in any way, then that means the child could harm another person trying to imitate.
Aggression is not only physical; it can also be also a verbal behavior intended to harm another person or towards yourself. In a study it has also shown that traumatic brain injury also caused people to act violently. They collected data from 107 people who when they were young had a traumatic brain injury and it showed that almost all of them showed aggressive/ violent behavior. In the article it says that aggression is one of the most frequent consequences of having a traumatic brain injury (Rao,1). The participants showed verbal abuse like cursing and threatening more frequently. This shows that trauma of any kind can cause aggressive behaviors in kids that develop over time. This is because when the frontal lobe is damaged it affects the ability to learn, behavior, and a person’s personality. Therefore, any trauma in the brain can cause aggressive behaviors.
Frustration can also lead to aggressive behavior in children. In the textbook it says, “a prime example of this phenomenon is the frustration-aggression principle: frustration creates anger, which sparks aggression” (Myers,506). Any stimuli that can provoke frustration, can led to aggressive behaviors. Stimulus can include temperature physical pain, verbal abuse or even odors. In an article its stays, “Kids who have problems with cognition or communication may also manifest with aggression. When children with these conditions become aggressive, they often do so because they have difficulty dealing with their anxiety or frustration” (Silva,1). This reinforces the fact that people can’t ignore children’s aggressive behavior. If something is frustrating and provoking anger, then an adult should see this as an opportunity to teach the child that some things will be difficult to overcome but they can’t result to violence. In this article it also backs up the fact that frustration can lead to the child being aggressive. It says, “Ongoing frustration can lead to anger, which is a stronger emotion. Kids might express anger by yelling, pushing, fighting, or acting out” (Kelly,1). Recognizing the child’s frustration maybe difficult at the moment but that’s why communication is very important. Communicating with your kids is an easy way to establish trust and security when they ace an obstacle. If we continue to ignore or see this an unimportant, that the aggressive behavior is then reinforced. When behavior is reinforced it is more likely that behavior will happen again. So, when frustration happens it can lead to aggressive behaviors that people can easily disregard.
What children see in the media can also contribute to aggression in children. In the United states especially, portray violence in a gratifying way. This can be seen in many TV shows and video games. Boys are mostly targeted by media aggression. It teaches them social scripts which is model guide for how to act in certain situations. According to the textbook it says that, “when an adolescent boy is faced with a real-life challenge may act “like a man” like portrayed in an action film” (Myers,507). Children at a very age can also be affected by the video games they play and shows them that taking real life risks is glorifying and rewarding. This is very dangerous to show kids at a young age because it conditions them to respond aggressively when they are provoked. Children are especially at risk because at a young age, kids absorb any information and imitate. This is also proven in an article by new York times that says, “In a meta-analysis of 217 studies published between 1957 and 1990, the psychologists George Comstock and Haejung Paik found that the short-term effect of exposure to media violence on actual physical violence against a person was moderate to large in strength”(Pozios,1). This means that even short-term exposure to violent media can leave a mark on anybody especially impressionable children. Video games or other media desensitizes violence and cruelty and its crucial that parents regulate what their children can see.
For the nonprofit organization interview I interviewed the psychology professor at The City College of New York. He stated that there is a correlation between parenting styles and aggression. A parent that is dismissive and permits violent behavior will have a bully for a child. Many times, children aren’t just born with violent tendencies unless they have certain disorders. Therefor parenting plays, a huge role on a child’s development. He also said that there is a relation to what you see in media and often times it has to be long term. He also stated that depression can lead people to self-harm and harm others. This is because often times they don’t care what happens to themselves or other people. They don’t think about the consequences and that leads to aggression either verbal or physical. Along with the causes he also said some preventions like parenting classes. There are now more and more classes for mothers to teach new parents how to detect certain behaviors like aggression in children. Bullying prevention programs and classes also help eliminate some of the violent tendencies. The more we inform ourselves and our kids, the more we can prevent these behaviors.
To conclude, parenting, trauma, and media aggression are things that can highly affect he behavior of children starting at a very young age. There have been many studies that show aggression was often provoked by poor parenting and abuse. Children are very impressionable and are like sponges that absorbs information. That’s why its important to be set a good example for your kids or siblings because they mimic certain behaviors. Children are the future and that’s why people should not set aside their feelings and concern. Instead we should provide emotional support in schools and especially at home. The more informed we are about the possible effects of our behavior; the less children have to suffer by our hands.
Work cited
Scholarly sources:
Delaney-Black, Virginia. “Violence Exposure, Trauma, and IQ and/or Reading Deficits Among Urban Children.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, American Medical Association, 1 Mar. 2002, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/191640.
Moreno-Ruiz, David, et al. “Parenting Style and Reactive and Proactive Adolescent Violence: Evidence from Spain.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, MDPI, 24 Nov. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6313543/.
Myers, David G., and C. Nathan DeWall. Psychology. Worth Publishers, 2018.
Rao, Vani, et al. “Aggression after Traumatic Brain Injury: Prevalence and Correlates.” The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2918269/.
Popular sources:
Kelly, Kate. “Recognizing Frustration and Anger in Kids Who Struggle in School.” Anger and Frustration in Kids Who Struggle in School, Understood, 4 Oct. 2019, www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/managing-feelings/anger-frustration/helping-your-child-cope-with-anger-and-frustration.
Peterson, Sarah. “Effects.” The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 19 Mar. 2018, www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/physical-abuse/effects.
Pozios, Vasilis K., et al. “Does Media Violence Lead to the Real Thing?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Aug. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/opinion/sunday/does-media-violence-lead-to-the-real-thing.html.
Richards-Gustafson, Flora. “The Effects of Bad Parenting on Children.” Hello Motherhood, 17 Oct. 2019, www.hellomotherhood.com/article/560572-the-effects-of-bad-parenting-on-children/
