Littleton (2010), notes that “child behavior needs more supervision and control than ten years ago.” There are many aspects that influenced child behavior, such as overall family relationships, parent-child relations, and others. Child behavior depends on the child, his intelligence, genotype, background, and different social and psychological aspects. The statement that child behavior has become worse than it was ten years ago may be rather controversial.
Has Child Behavior Gotten Worse?
There have been always bad and good people, as well as children. It has become a common issue today that everything is getting worse, and child behavior is not an exception. This is a reflection of the postmodern global society, which influences all spheres of human life. Today, parents have become more selfish or lazy to make investments in their children. They do not give much love or emotional support to their children; this leads to misunderstanding in the families.
Child Behavior and Its Roots
The importance of cultural and behavioral understanding in a global society has become an important issue in order to decide what is normal for a new cultural environment. Cultural intelligence helps to shape and manage cross-cultural differences, which give the opportunity to predict future behavioral patterns. This process is not easy and very often children do not know how to adapt to a new economic, social and cultural environment. As a result, their behavior can be estimated as inadequate, because they are searching for appropriate decisions, support, and understanding.
Cultural values may be another important issue, which is responsible for children’s behavior. Many scholars acknowledge that lack of culture leads to bad behavior. This process may be overviewed in schools, where teachers and educators face it daily. Teenagers are the most complicated age group of children who have problems with teachers, peers, parents and sometimes the police.
There may be different explanations and excuses for bad children’s behavior. For example, a great number of parents do not spend enough time and effort to interact with their children because they are busy with their personal lives. Therefore, children lack parents’ attention and psychological support.
Obviously, there are a great number of parents, who cannot be an example for their children, such as those who are drug-addicted, alcoholics, criminals, and others. Child abuse is also the reason that influences their behavior. Different types of child abuse have an emotional effect on the child. Children need to be aware that their parents protect them and take care of their safety. According to the research, during the last decades, a great number of American children are scared to be killed in their own families. It is evident that the USA has the worst record of child abuse among highly-developed industrial countries in the world.
Social and Educational Implications by Littleton
The research asserts that students’ behavior, and in particular their behavior when in the company of their peers, is seen as a problem. There is a lot of evidence about bullying in schools, much of which occurs in the playground. Another reason for the decline in break time is pressure to maximize educational attainment and curriculum coverage.
Littleton 2010 notes: Many problems with child behavior have occurred when in the company of their peers. From a research point of view, there is an appreciation by some that much can be learned about children from studying their behavior and experiences at break times. The playground is a useful research site because it is one of the few occasions, when children interact in a relatively safe environment, free of adult control, and when their play and social relations are more their own.
What Is the Main reason for Child Bad Behavior Today
The lack of culture is one of the main reasons for child bad behavior today. There are different causes of bullying. Some children learn to bully in homes, where aggression is normal among parents and their children. Among other reasons, it is worth mentioning jealousy, inadequacy, cultural, race, social background or sexual orientation. It is estimated that bullying may often occur because of parental modeling, individual weakness, lack of compassion and empathy.
Children who consider bullying an ideal pattern of their behavior do not care about other people’s feelings. Aggressive behavior of children is a common feature that points to worsened child behavior nowadays. Children who are prone to behave in an aggressive manner usually observe their parents doing so in their families, in order to gain control over their family members. It is a complicated matter because such parents would not cooperate with school personnel to change the child’s behavior. Children may see aggression in a variety of forms every day: in schools, neighborhoods and the media.
Schwartz-Kenney (2001) acknowledges that physical abuse like beating, choking, kicking, stabbing, throwing and other types of punishment may lead children to use these patterns in their own behavior. Many children feel a lack of basic needs, such as bad food, lack of affection, lack of medical care, clothing, education, etc. It is often observed in poor families, where parents are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Sexual abuse, e.g. sexual exploitation of children, which includes sexual acts with children like incest, rape, sodomy, child prostitution or pornography, also leads to aggressive child behavior. Some parents abuse their children emotionally by constant criticism, a lack of attention, support, love, and affection. This kind of attitude leads, as a rule, to delays in physical or emotional development, suicide attempts, low self-esteem, and many other psychological problems.
Child Behavior Essay Conclusion
To conclude, it is worth mentioning that child behavior needs more supervision and control than ten years ago. Child behavior depends on the child, his intelligence, genotype, background, and different social and psychological aspects. Bad child behavior is a reflection of the postmodern global society, which influences all spheres of human life. Child families and per environment are considered to play an important role in child behavior. The research asserts that parents have to give more love or emotional support to their children in order to prevent children from aggression and bullying. Thus, the research has proven that child behavior is worse today than it was ten years ago.