Surprisingly, infants and preschoolers are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior. Despite this, it is important to point out that due to the lack of motor coordination and strength, their actions tend to be less harmful than those of an adult.
To deal with this behavior, it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to it and to seek appropriate strategies to constructively address it.
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It is important to note that aggressive behavior in children generally decreases as they get older. For this reason, it is essential to offer appropriate support and intervention during childhood, in order to avoid difficult life trajectories with a history of aggression. By intervening and providing the necessary support at this stage, it is possible to help shape a more positive and healthy future for these children.
Studies suggest that the inability to recognize negative emotions in others, such as anger, fear, and sadness, is associated with callous traits and lack of emotion in childhood. These traits can include a lack of guilt for hurting others, a lack of empathy, and a general tendency to be insensitive.
When a child fails to recognize or understand the emotional consequences of their actions, it can make it easier for harmful behaviors to continue. A lack of awareness of the negative emotions your actions cause in others can lead to a lack of remorse or guilt. This cycle can perpetuate the aggression.
To understand each of these processes, we need to follow the path that psychological studies demonstrate, exploring how a lack of emotional understanding can affect the development of children.
There are two distinct forms of aggression, each with its own emotional characteristics: cold, calculated aggression and hot, reactive aggression.
Calculated aggression is characterized by the intentional use of force to achieve a desired goal. An example of this is when a child attacks a classmate to steal his candy, without any provocation. This type of "cold-hearted" aggression is associated with callous traits and a lack of emotion.
Reactive aggression occurs when someone harms others in response to provocation. Children who demonstrate reactive aggression tend to be more impulsive and emotionally intense. They may have difficulty controlling their anger and tend to interpret others' intentions as hostile.
A study who analyzed the recognition of emotions in more than 600 children to investigate calculated aggression and reactive aggression.
In this study, children were exposed to pictures of faces that expressed different levels of sadness, anger, fear and happiness, in a random order. They were asked to identify which emotion was being expressed or whether no emotion was present. Factors such as tutors' education, age and gender of children were considered to correlate with emotions.
These findings revealed a consistent association between lack of awareness of others' anger, fear, and sadness and the use of calculated aggression. In other words, children who have difficulty understanding that their actions can negatively affect others are more likely to resort to violence to achieve their goals.
In the study, it was found that the tendency to interpret negative expressions as if they were happy was consistently related to higher levels of reactive aggression, but only during the first infancy.
This means that children in this age group who had difficulty recognizing negative emotions in other people's faces and misinterpreted how happy expressions were more likely to display aggressive behavior in response to situations provocative.
Although it is completely difficult to face these behaviors during childhood, the ideal is to understand if the child has the tact to identify the emotions they are capable of causing. In addition, without exception, the ideal is to keep the environment healthy so that the child understands the place in the world.
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