Aggression Behaviors among Preschool Children in Communication

Aggression Behaviors among Preschool Children in Communication

 

Professional Interest

The research question assesses why preschool children use aggression when communicating with others. It relates to my specialization and professional interests because children’s aggressive behaviors are linked with their social-psychological changes and development, which caregivers, teachers, or parents should be concerned about. Aggression among young, preschool children may contribute to adverse sociological and psychological impacts, which could result in harassment, trauma, and bullying in school. Therefore, as a professional psychology specialist, this research question is crucial when it comes to psychological development or changes in early childhood development. Also, the topic is essential in assessing various programs, policies, and interventions that need to be implemented to mitigate long-term incidences of aggression among children and its adverse impacts on their development. Most development in both social-emotional and cognitive domains usually occurs during early childhood, where preschool children develop sophisticated verbal skills, goal-directed behaviors, and self-awareness.

 

Keywords

Some of the keywords used for conducting searches in the scholarly databases include Aggression, Verbal Communication, Preschool Child, Risk Factors, and Predictors. The reasons for using these keywords are because they best describe my research question or topic. These search terms typically represent the primary concept of the research topic, and scholars use these terms to describe it. Therefore, given the fact that library databases search or look for the exact keywords or phrases entered in the search box, exploring the entire research question in library databases may not give the required search results. Also, using these keywords that are relevant to the research question may ensure broad database searches, including searching them on the articles’ titles, contents, and sources.

Results achieved through searching these words were relevant to the research question and assessed the aggressive behaviors of preschool children when communicating verbally. It presented some other articles based on the synonyms of the keywords and using secondary keywords. However, in most cases, the library database displayed results with exact words entered in the search boxes. Therefore, to make sure that the result did not miss out on some relevant, crucial sources, I used synonyms such as childhood aggression, emotional communication, and causes. All resulting articles revolved around causes or the contributing factors of aggressive behaviors in early childhood or preschool children.

 

Evaluation of Sources

Timeline: All journal articles selected for research were published recently and explore current issues, mainly published in the last five to seven years. Based on the aggressive topic, the information provided by these articles is current enough.

Peer-reviewed: All journal articles are peer-reviewed, which enhance the accuracy, truthfulness, reliability, and correctness of the information presented. They are supported by evidence-based practices and cited. Information in these articles is balanced, and it is possible to verify it from other reliable sources such as books and journals. They are refereed or peer-reviewed by other scholars before publication.

Literature Review, Methodology, and Results: All journal articles include comprehensive, in-depth literature review, methodology, and results. These articles have been written by and for scholars, faculty, or researchers. They use scholarly language and provide a detailed assessment of the topic with full citations for sources. The language applied is discipline-specific such as based on psychological developments, early childhood development, or psychology of child development and care.

Authority: All articles provide information of those individuals who sponsored the research, including educational institutions, government research institutions, or organizations. They also provide details of the authors’ affiliations, which include various departments.

 

Sources

Choe, Lane, Grabell & Olson (2013) conducted a longitudinal study to assess evidence of preschool-age precursors’ aggressive attribution. The article evaluated various risk factors such as laboratory and observation examinations of preschool children’s general cognitive functioning, social cognition, and peer aggression. The research concluded that the tendency for children to make aggressive attributions was significantly predicted by the misunderstanding of others’ emotional and mental states, as well as poor verbal ability in early childhood or preschool years. Early deficits in self-regulation, in conjunction with the misunderstanding of others’ mental states, increased the vulnerability of children to be aggressive when communicating with others.

 

Choe, D. E., Lane, J. D., Grabell, A. S., & Olson, S. L. (2013). Developmental precursors of young school-age children’s hostile attribution bias. Developmental Psychology, 49(12), 2245–2256. https://doi-org.db20.linccweb.org/10.1037/a0032293

 

Laurent, Hecht, Ensink, Borelli & Irvine (2020) conducted a multidimensional assessment of emotional understanding, aggression, and social functioning in a sample of aggressive preschoolers and compared it to a matched group. The article found that the aggressive group recorded a low expressive emotional understanding, little prosocial behavior, low peer acceptance, and high receptive emotional understanding. Also, the study found that higher physical aggression predicted significant peer victimization. In most cases, an expressive psychological knowledge was associated with high peer acceptance, especially among the aggressive group. This study is crucial to the current research topic, mainly because it reveals some risk factors associated with aggression among preschoolers.

 

Laurent, G., Hecht, H. K., Ensink, K., & Borelli, J. L. (2020). Emotional understanding, aggression, and social functioning among preschoolers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 90(1), 9–21. https://doi-org.db20.linccweb.org/10.1037/ort0000377

 

Coyne, Stockdale, Linder, Nelson, Collier, et al. (2017) conducted a longitudinal study to examine the relationships between media content (superhero engagement) and various prosocial, aggressive, and defending behaviors in preschool children. The study discovered that preschoolers’ engagement with aggressive media contents such as Superheros was associated with increased relational and physical aggression. However, it was not related to any defending or prosocial behaviors. This study is relevant to the current research topic, given the fact that preschoolers’ exposure to aggressive media content was found to be one of the risk factors for increased aggressive behaviors.

 

Coyne, S., Stockdale, L., Linder, J., Nelson, D., Collier, K., Essig, L., Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Nelson, D. A., Collier, K. M., & Essig, L. W. (2017). Pow! Boom! Kablam! Effects of Viewing Superhero Programs on Aggressive, Prosocial, and Defending Behaviors in Preschool Children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45(8), 1523–1535. https://doi-org.db20.linccweb.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0253-6