by Henriette Erb
A common problem at schools and in communities that is associated with impaired emotional development in children is childhood violence and aggressive behavior. This can lead to negative outcomes not only for the child but also for the community it lives in as a whole. In this post, we’d like to suggest an intervention aimed at fostering positive emotions and reducing violence in children.
The EDI Report is a national analysis of child development that periodically measures and compares vulnerability among children of individual neighborhoods on different aspects of development such as Emotional Development. As the most recent waves of the report show, there hasn’t been any improvement in terms of aggressive behavior in children of Qualicum Beach during the last research period (HELP, 2019).
Potential contributors to child aggression can be both a genetic predisposition for aggression and a lack of impulse control, as well as environmental influences such as neglectful or abusive parenting, traumatic events, difficult home situations, or exposure to toxins.
Some of the behaviors aggressive children often display are listed in the table below
These behaviors don’t only cause harm to victims, they can also lead to limitations in physical, cognitive, and social development for the child displaying the aggressive behavior, as well as to continued adjustment problems later in life, including unhealthy relationships, school suspensions and problems with the law, general anger management issues, and chronic aggressive and antisocial behavior.
Fortunately, there are ways to eliminate risk factors and promote resilience in vulnerable children. Some highly impactful resilience factors include strong positive personality traits, caring relationships with parents and other adults, as well as support from the community (Berk, 2021). However, many teachers with children displaying aggressive behavior in their classrooms are overwhelmed and don’t know how to respond to the situation appropriately.
That is why, to overcome childhood violence in Qualicum Beach, we recommend the school district to intervene by introducing a community-wide program in its schools and kindergartens aimed at increasing children’s resilience in the face of adverse events that might threaten their emotional development. It is based on the research of Tina Malti on the relationship between the nurturing of social-emotional development and violence in children (Malti, 2020).
The program includes the following measures
- Induction rather than harsh punishments for misbehavior to make children aware of other people’s feelings and the negative consequences of their behavior for others
- Role play activities and discussions aimed at teaching children to realistically evaluate social scenarios and responding behaviors in order to help them become aware of their cognitive biases (such as making misjudgements about other people’s intent)
- Regular workshops or classes on emotional intelligence and adaptive strategiesfor dealing with frustration as part of the curriculum
- In-class stress management practises such as progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness to begin each school/kindergarten day
- Group activities aimed at building trust between classmates, as well as making children care about other children and develop empathy and sympathy
- Mentors for vulnerable children as ethical examples who spend time with the child, demonstrate empathy in everyday life, and make children aware of situations in which they act inappropriately
- Monthly parenting exchanges inviting parents to the school/ pre-school to give them advice on warm parenting and allow them to discuss parenting practices with other parents, as according to Malti an important factor in the development of empathy is a warm child-caregiver relationship (Malti, 2020)
While the program can help children overcome past trauma related to violence, the focus is on building resilience and emotional intelligence in the first place, meaning that all children can benefit from it, whether they are currently displaying aggressive behavior or not.
It is the community’s responsibility to protect its children, not just the parent’s. Schools, pre-schools, and kindergartens are where children spend most of their day, so interventions starting there can be a huge opportunity for fostering positive emotional development and reducing child violence, especially since these interventions make it possible to reach all children, irrespective of their home situation.
References
Bale, Tracy, L. (2015). Epigenetic and transgenerational reprogramming of brain development. Retrieved on: https://eds-s-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca, 03.2022
Berk, Laura E. (2021). Infants and Children: Prenatal through Middle Childhood (9th ed.), Pearson
Conradt, Elizabeth (2017). Using Principles of Behavioral Epigenetics to Advance Research on Early-Life Stress. Retrieved on https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca, 03.2022
Janus, Magdalena (2000). Early Development Instrument. McMaster University. Retrieved 27.03.22 from: http://earlylearning.ubc.ca
Malti, Tina (2020). Children and Violence: Nurturing Social-Emotional Development to Promote Mental Health. Society for Research in Child Development. Retrieved 03.04.2022 from: https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sop2.8
Masten AS, Barnes AJ (2018). Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. Children. Retrieved on: https://doi.org/10.3390/children5070098, 03.2022
The Human Early Learning Partnership (2019). EDI Wave 7 Community Profile, retrieved on: earlylearning.ubc.ca, 02.2022
The Human Early Learning Partnership (2019). Wave 7 EDICommunity Subscales Report, retrieved on: earlylearning.ubc.ca, 02.2022
The Human Early Learning Partnership (2019). EDI BC 2019 Provincial Report, retrieved on: elearn.capu.ca, 02.2022
The Human Early Learning Partnership (2016). 2016 Census for uploading to datalibrary, retrieved on elearn.capu.ca, 02.2022
April 23, 2022 at 12:04 pm
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your post! It was very informative and engaging. Even though it was a lot of information I didn’t get bored reading it at all! It was also ver interesting.
April 27, 2022 at 11:26 am
Hey Henriette, right off the bat good job clearly identifying the issue that you are looking to address. I think as children grow up, it’s important for us to not impose punishment harshly, which is what Malti conveys. I think a lot of these suggestions convert punishments into learning experiences, which at it’s core is the best way to promote emotional development, so I think it was a perfect example to use for this project. It really does take a village to raise a child so to speak, and I think as time goes on there are only going to be more pressures on parents with all the distractions kids are faced with. We dove into technology and the oppurtunities but also the challenges it poses to parents and their children and it’s important that children don’t lose some of the valuable skills they gain through real world experience and when these real world experiences present themselves, the entire community needs to know the right practices to ensure that children are adapting appropriately. Appreciate the post!