Children who are depressed and have delinquent friends may be the most likely to lash out violently at others.
Children who are depressed and have delinquent friends may be the most likely to lash out violently at others.
A lot of media attention tends to focus on individual factors that inculcate violent tendencies in children, like playing violent video games, even when there's no evidence that they're connected with violent behaviour. To investigate the interplay among various risk factors for violent behavior, researchers in Texas, U.S. looked at 603 children, aged between 10 and 14 years old and also interviewed their parents or guardians. Most of the children were Hispanic. Fifteen percent of the children said they had committed non-violent crimes, while 12 percent said they had taken part in violent criminal behaviour.
Depression and having delinquent peers were found to be the strongest risk factors for violent behaviour. Others risk factors included a parent's psychological abuse of a partner, antisocial personality, negative relationships with adults, and family conflict.
Surprisingly, the amount of time a youth spent watching violent TV or playing violent video games didn't have anything to do with whether he or she would commit violent acts in real life. It was also found that while kids whose parents were psychologically abusive to their intimate partners were more likely to engage in violence, being exposed to a parent's physical abuse of a partner wasn't a factor.
Based on the findings, the researchers recommended that special programnes should be targeted to prevent youth violence in depressed children.
A lot of media attention tends to focus on individual factors that inculcate violent tendencies in children, like playing violent video games, even when there's no evidence that they're connected with violent behaviour. To investigate the interplay among various risk factors for violent behavior, researchers in Texas, U.S. looked at 603 children, aged between 10 and 14 years old and also interviewed their parents or guardians. Most of the children were Hispanic. Fifteen percent of the children said they had committed non-violent crimes, while 12 percent said they had taken part in violent criminal behaviour.
Depression and having delinquent peers were found to be the strongest risk factors for violent behaviour. Others risk factors included a parent's psychological abuse of a partner, antisocial personality, negative relationships with adults, and family conflict.
Surprisingly, the amount of time a youth spent watching violent TV or playing violent video games didn't have anything to do with whether he or she would commit violent acts in real life. It was also found that while kids whose parents were psychologically abusive to their intimate partners were more likely to engage in violence, being exposed to a parent's physical abuse of a partner wasn't a factor.
Based on the findings, the researchers recommended that special programnes should be targeted to prevent youth violence in depressed children.
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