Seeing And Experiencing Violence Makes Aggression ‘Normal’ For Children

Seeing And Experiencing Violence Makes Aggression ‘Normal’ For Children

From a March 30 Medical News item

The more children are exposed to violence, the more they think it’s normal, according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science(published by SAGE). Unfortunately, the more they think violence is normal, the more likely they are to engage in aggression against others.

Researchers asked nearly 800 children, from 8 to 12 years old, about whether they had witnessed violence at school, in their neighborhood, at home, or on TV. They also asked the participants if they had been a victim of violence with questions like “How often has somebody hit you at home?” The survey also measured responses to whether aggression was appropriate, such as in the statement: “Sometimes you have to hit others because they deserve it.” The final section of the questionnaire measured how aggressive the child was, based both on their own report and what their classmates said about them.

Six months later, they surveyed the children again, asking the same questions. This allowed them to test whether witnessing violence – or being a victim of it – led to higher levels of aggression half a year later.

The schoolchildren who had witnessed violence were more aggressive. Witnessing violence also had a delayed effect – observing violence at the first phase of the study predicted more aggression six months later, over and above how aggressive the children were in the beginning.

The same effect occurred for being a victim of violence. Victimization at the first phase of the study was associated with more aggression six months later, even given the high levels of aggression at the study’s start.

The increased aggression was caused in part by a change in how the children thought that violence was normal. Seeing violence – at home, school, on TV, or as its victim – made it seem common, normal, and acceptable. Thinking that aggression is “normal” led to more of it.

“Exposure to violence can also increase aggression regardless of whether at home, at school, in or in the virtual world of TV, regardless of whether the person is a witness or a victim,” the authors wrote. “People exposed to a heavy diet of violence come to believe that aggression is a normal way to solve conflict and get what you want in life. These beliefs lower their inhibitions against aggression against others.”

Notes:

The research team was headed by Izaskun Orue of University of Deusto in Spain, and included Brad Bushman of Ohio State University, and researchers from The Netherlands and Germany.

The article “Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Hurt: Longitudinal Effects of Exposure to Violence on Children’s Aggressive Behavior” in Social Psychological and Personality Science is available free for a limited time here.

Source:
Ashley Wrye
SAGE Publications

 

 

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The International Child & Youth Care Network

The International Child & Youth Care Network (CYC-NET) is a registered non-profit and public benefit organisation in South Africa. It aims to “promote and facilitate reading, learning, information sharing, discussion, networking, support and accountable practice amongst all who work with children, youth and families in difficulty.” However parents and others will undoubtedly find information at this Web site to be useful.

Many items at the home page are updated at least weekly as Daily News, Today, Press Release, and Link.

The home page has two main gateways to information through the tabs

• Learning Zone with free online courses and training/educational podcasts
• Network with site statistics, as recent top queries and the average number of daily visitors. On January 26,2011 the Recent top search queries were  bullied to death, homeless children statistics, bowlby, montesorri, anorexia nervosa, principles of management, punishment for children, bipolar disorder, peer influence, positive reinforcement for children, effects of corporal punishment, heroin stories.

Kids Can’t Accurately Judge Speed of Approaching Cars: Study

From a November 30, 2010 Health Day news item by Robert Preidt

Young children can’t tell the speed of a vehicle 5 seconds away and moving faster than 20 mph

TUESDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDay News) — Primary school children cannot accurately estimate the speed of approaching vehicles moving faster than 20 miles per hour, finds a new study.

“This is not a matter of children not paying attention, but a problem related to low-level visual detection mechanisms,” John Wann, lead researcher and a professor in the department of psychology at Royal Holloway College, University of London, said in a university news release.

“So even when children are paying very close attention, they may fail to detect a fast-approaching vehicle,” Wann warned….

….

“These findings provide strong evidence that children may make risky crossing judgments when vehicles are traveling at 30 or 40 mph,” Wann said.

“In addition, the vehicles that they are more likely to step in front of are the faster vehicles that are more likely to result in a fatality,” he added.

“Traveling one mile through a residential area at 20 mph versus 30 mph will only add 60 seconds to your journey time — we encourage drivers to take a minute and save a child’s life,” Wann said.

The study findings were released online Nov. 23 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Psychological Science.