Child-To-Parent Psychological Theories Of Aggression

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Violence within the family is a serious issue and it can cause serious physical and mental issues to many of the victims. Violence directed towards the parents from the child has typically been ignored within the scope of the family violence field. However, this issue has started to become more prevalent and has started to receive more attention. Child-to-parent violence or aggression is known as any behavior or action that is performed by a child under the age of 18, where their actions have the intent to cause physical, psychological or financial issues to the parents or guardians.
Studies have shown that almost 21% of families have experienced child-to-parent physical aggression and 65% have experienced child-to-parent psychological aggression. There has been mixed results on the correlation between the aggression and the gender of the children. Some of the important predictors of child aggression are due to an exposure to violence in other forms. These forms include witnessing aggression between parents and experiencing aggression towards them or other children from the parents. Two different parenting styles have also been associated with an …show more content…

This reasoning may explain why aggressive children feel like others are being hostile towards them. Aggressive children typically usually display higher levels of hostility in social situations than non-aggressive children and they feel that their actions are justified to because it allows them to acquire the outcome they desire. Children with behaviors typically have more materialistic or instrumental goals; such as obtaining an object or controlling various individuals. The opposite can be seen with non-aggressive children. Typically they have more prosocial goals such as; doing the right thing or sharing (Sengsavang & Krettenauer,

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