Crime rates have increased drastically among the children and adults in the society over the recent years. Poor parenting, altruism, and prosocial learning has been associated with violence among the children. Therefore, the paper will focus on the role that poor parenting, altruism and prosocial education play in the development of violent behavior in individuals. The knowledge shared by authors of various articles supports these ideas. It will discuss the relationship that exists between aggression and self-esteem. The paper will summarize the complete knowledge covered as well.
The relationship between aggression and self-esteem
A debate on the relationship that exists between self-esteem and aggression has emerged over the past years. Various controversies and theories have been used to explain the relationship between the two concepts. It is argued that as a form of antisocial behavior, aggression acts as an expression of low esteem among children, on one side. Low self-esteem causes depression among children, which rises as the children try to express their inner pain and problems. Other researchers argue that aggression among young children arises from wounded self-esteem and ego (Ostrov, 2006). The relationship of an individual with peers influences self-esteem during adolescence and middle childhood. Rejection and harassment from peers wound the esteem of children, who may react by being aggressive to the inner pain to prove a point to others. According to the article “forms of aggression and peer victimization During Early Childhood: A Short-term Longitudinal Study,” aggression is categorized broadly as; physical aggression and relational aggression. Relational aggression deals with relationships with peers while physical aggression deals with the physical reaction. Physical aggression is more common in men that women because they are considered more energetic than women, who engage mostly in verbal assault. Physical aggression, lying and delinquent behavior is related closely, according to the article, “Deception and subtypes of aggression during early childhood.”
Roles of poor parenting in the development of violent behavior
Parents and guardians have an important part to play in instilling discipline among children to ensure that their children grow up well. Parents are supposed to counsel their children on the prosocial behavior to make sure that their children do not engage in antisocial behavior. Children look up to their parents and emulate their behavior. However, recent studies show that cases of poor parenting have increased with time. It has triggered children to commit crimes and violence due to the lack of guidance and discipline. According to the article, ‘‘Tolerating,’’ Adolescent Needs Moving Beyond Zero Tolerance Policies in High School,” the author argues that authorities’ control can help in shaping the morals of a student. Zero tolerance advocates that to avoid much violence from occurring, violent students should be discarded from schools. To make sure that children behave well, parents and teachers should exercise authoritative discipline.
However, since parents are busy, and do not have time to talk and care what their kids do in their absence, the relationship is broken down today. In return, because they can get attention from such groups, children have engaged in substance abuse, peer pressure, and crime or violent groups. Therefore, there is the need to embrace good parenting among the adults. Any relationships that will help students in improving their weaknesses should be established. School administration boards should come up with programs that address efficiently the students’ nonacademic needs. Authoritative discipline and support from adults create a sound and secure environment; where learning can take place thus, obtaining achievements in schools. Children, who grow up in homes where parents are engaged in consistent violence are likely to be violent in nature (Ostrov, 2008).
The role of prosocial behavior in the development of violent behavior
Prosocial behavior is described as activities carried out willingly by an individual to benefit himself or herself and other persons. Prosocial behavior includes donating, helping, obeying rules and observing the socially accepted behavior, volunteering, sharing and cooperating. Prosocial behavior influences a positive behavior among children and the society. The role of media has changed the prosocial behavior among children today. The media has introduced various programs for children and others for adults. Nevertheless, the problem is that both the prosocial and antisocial behaviors are learned. It is a big challenge to Differentiating between a prosocial media message, and media messages that are harmful to children is a challenge. The media has been exposed the children to much violence shows and programs, which can trigger violent behavior among them.
However, few programs that teach children on the need to practice prosocial behavior have been developed. Altruism is more common in children shows and situation comedies than in other types of shows, as the results from a research that was carried out on 1000 programs in the U.S. depicted. Programs such as Nickelodeon, Dragon Tales, The Wild Thorn Berry’s, Drake and Josh, The Suite life of Zack, and Cody among others teach children to practice prosocial behavior (Gregory & Cornell, 2009). Studies show that altruism occurs about four times an hour, but violence occurs roughly fourteen times an hour as well behavior (Gregory & Cornell, 2009). It has adverse effects on children because they may end up emulating some characters of a particular program in engaging in the antisocial and violent behavior. Therefore, parents should guide their children to watch nonviolent contents to avoid adverse impacts on their behavior. Additionally, to influence people to watch programs that are valuable to them, personal preferences can be used.
Altruism
It is a concept that describes selfless activities that individuals engage in to help others such as sharing. Altruism is used to guide behavior among the young children because they imitate people and the environment that are close to them. Altruism plays a significant role in causing and preventing violence among young children. Individual variations in early compassion are dependent on aggressiveness and parents’ reactions to children, who harm others that are around them. Children who have experienced good parental love and care are more concerned with the welfare of others (Gregory & Cornell, 2009). Parents who give an effective explanation to their children help them in showing mercy and compassion to others, as opposed to children who have experienced roughness and harassment. Parents play a significant role in instructing their children to engage in prosocial behavior. By giving tangible rewards to any child who has the welfare of others at heart, it encourages altruism among children. Many children’s programs should exhibit the concepts of prosocial behavior as well. Therefore, children should be exposed to television clips that teach on prosocial behavior and scenarios where they are required to use the prosocial behavior to help others. Since young children may not depict the moral lessons of particular episode or clip, guidance is relevant. Prosocial shows involve dialogues and less action that make it difficult for children to understand the main plot and subplots.
Conclusion
Factors such as poor parenting, altruism, and prosocial behavior influence children behavior. By introducing violent films, which children watch from time to time, the media has played a significant role in corrupting the concept of prosocial behavior. Parents have a contributing role towards how their children behave; they should guide discipline by presenting authoritative parenting and guidance. For their children to emulate the good behavior, they should be role models. They should create more time to be with their children as well. The concept of aggression is linked closely with self-esteem; in most cases, wounded esteem triggers aggression among adolescents and children. Various types of attack influence people’s behavior depending on gender and other social factors. Males engage in physical aggression while females participate mostly in verbal aggression.
References
Ostrov, J. M. (2006). Deception and subtypes of aggression during early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 93(4), 322-336.
Gregory, A., & Cornell, D. (2009). “Tolerating” adolescent needs: Moving beyond zero tolerance policies in high school. Theory into Practice, 48(2), 106-113.
Ostrov, J. M. (2008). Forms of aggression and peer victimization during early childhood: A short-term longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36(3), 311-322.
