Aggression among Preschool Children within the Framework of Temperament, Attachment and Parental Attitudes

Öz

Aggression is a common problem in preschool children. The relationship between aggressive behaviors in early ages and psychopathologies in later years has been shown in previous studies. Therefore, it is imperative to understand both the causes of childhood aggression and identify the sustaining factors. This review discusses aggression in the context of temperament, parental attitudes, and attachment factors. The concept of temperament was explained with the terminology of difficult and easy temperament, emotionality, activity, sociability, and impulsivity factors, especially from the perspectives of Thomas and Chess, Goldsmith and Plomin, and Cloninger, and associated with aggression in the preschool period. In addition, possible causes of aggression in children were assessed with attachment theory. Finally, the relationship between parents, their attitudes towards aggression, socioeconomic determinants in the family, and the possible relationship between aggression in children were discussed. This study examines the determinants of preschool children's aggression to solve aggression problems, focusing on family and temperamental characteristics. A more holistic assessment of aggression with child and parent characteristics is intended.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Aggression
• behavioral problems
• preschoolers
• attachment
• temperament
• parental attitudes
• parent interaction

Mizaç, Bağlanma ve Ebeveyn Tutumları Çerçevesinde Okul Öncesi Çocuklarında Saldırganlık

Öz

Saldırganlık, diğer bir adıyla agresyon, okul öncesi çocuklarda sıklıkla rastlanılan bir sorundur. Erken yaşlarda görülen saldırgan davranışların ileriki yıllardaki psikopatolojilerle ilişkisi daha önceki çalışmalarda gösterilmiştir. Dolayısıyla çocukluk dönemindeki saldırganlığın hem nedenlerinin anlaşılması hem de sürdürücü faktörlerin belirlenmesi oldukça önemlidir. Bu derlemede saldırganlık mizaç, ebeveyn tutumları ve bağlanma faktörleri bağlamında ele alınmıştır. Mizaç kavramı, Thomas ve Chess, Goldsmith ve Plomin, Cloninger’in bakış açıları başta olmak üzere zor ve kolay mizaç terminolojisi; duygusallık, aktiflik, sosyallik ve dürtüsellik faktörleri ile açıklanarak okul öncesi dönemdeki agresyonla ilişkilendirilmiştir. Ek olarak bağlanma kuramı ile ilişkilendirilerek çocuklardaki agresyonun olası sebepleri değerlendirilmiştir. Son olarak ebeveynlerin kendi arasındaki ilişki, saldırganlığa yönelik tutumları, ailedeki sosyoekonomik belirleyiciler ve çocuktaki agresyonun olası ilişkisi açıklanmıştır. Bu çalışma, özellikle aile ve mizaç özelliklerine odaklanarak saldırganlık sorunlarını çözmek için okul öncesi çocukların saldırganlığının belirleyici nedenlerini incelemektedir. Saldırganlığın hem çocuk hem de ebeveyn özellikleriyle birlikte daha bütüncül olarak değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• saldırganlık
• okul öncesi
• bağlanma
• mizaç
• ebeveyn tutumları
• agresyon

Kaynakça

1. Anaya B, Pérez-Edgar K (2019) Personality development in the context of individual traits and parenting dynamics. New Ideas Psychol, 53:37-46.
2. Ballard ME, Rattley KT, Fleming WC, Kidder-Ashley P (2004) School aggression and dispositional aggression among middle school boys. RMLE Online, 27:1-11.
3. Beckmann L, Bergmann MC, Fischer F, Mößle T (2021) Risk and protective factors of child-to-parent violence: a comparison between physical and verbal aggression. J Interpers Violence, 36:1309-1334.
4. Beduna KN, Perrone-McGovern KM (2019) Recalled childhood bullying victimization and shame in adulthood: the influence of attachment security, self-compassion, and emotion regulation. Traumatology, 25:21-32.
5. Bonacquisti A, Geller PA, Patterson CA (2020) Maternal depression, anxiety, stress, and maternal-infant attachment in the neonatal intensive care unit. J Reprod Infant Psychol, 38:297-310.
6. Bowie BH (2007) Relational aggression, gender, and the developmental process. J Child Adolesc Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs, 20:107-115.
7. Brame B, Nagin DS, Tremblay RE (2001) Developmental trajectories of physical aggression from school entry to late adolescence. J Child Adolesc Psychiatr Psychol, 42:503-512.
8. Brenning K, Soenens B, Mabbe E, Vansteenkiste M (2019) Ups and downs in the joy of motherhood: maternal well-being as a function of psychological needs, personality, and infant temperament. J Happiness Stud, 20:229-250.

9. Brook JS, Zheng L, Whiteman M, Brook DW (2001) Aggression in toddlers: associations with parenting and marital relations. J Genet Psychol, 162:228-241.
10. Brook J, Whiteman M, Finch S, Cohen P (1995) Aggression, intrapsychic distress, and drug-use—antecedent and intervening processes. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 34:1076-1084.
11. Cabello R, Gutiérrez-Cobo MJ, Fernández-Berrocal P (2017) parental education and aggressive behavior in children: a moderated-mediation model for inhibitory control and gender. Front Psychol, 8:1181.
12. CampbellSB (2002) Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues 2nd edition. New York, Guilford Press.
13. Cipriano-Essel E, Skowron EA, Stifter CA, Teti DM (2013) Heterogeneity in maltreated and non-maltreated preschool children’s inhibitory control: the interplay between parenting quality and child temperament. Infant Child Dev, 22:501-522.
14. Cloninger CR (1987) A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants: a proposal. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 44:573-588.
15. Davies PT, Thompson MJ, Hentges RF, Coe JL. Sturge-Apple ML (2020). Children’s attentional biases to emotions as sources of variability in their vulnerability to interparental conflict. Dev Psychol, 56:1343-1359.
16. DeLisi M, Vaughn MG (2014) Foundation for a temperament-based theory of antisocial behavior and criminal justice system involvement. J Crim Justice, 42:10-25.
17. Dixon L, Slep AMS (2017) Intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. The Wiley Handbook of What Works in Child Maltreatment: An Evidence‐Based Approach to Assessment and Intervention in Child Protection (Eds L Dixon, DF Perkins, C Hamilton-Giachritsis, LA Craig):97-109. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley.
18. Earls F ve Jung KG (1987) Temperament and home environment characteristics as causal factors in the early development of childhood psychopathology. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 26:491-498.
19. Emery RE (2014) Families as systems: some thoughts on methods and theory. In Emerging Methods in Family Research (Eds SM McHale, P Amato, A Booth):109-124. New York, Springer.
20. Ersan C (2020) Early language development and child aggression. World Journal of Education, 10:1-11.
21. Ersan C, Tok Ş (2020) The study of the aggression levels of preschool children in terms of emotion expression and emotion regulation. Egitim ve Bilim, 45:359-391.
22. Evans CA, Nelson LJ, Porter CL (2012) Making sense of their world: sensory reactivity and novelty awareness as aspects of temperament and correlates of social behaviours in early childhood. Infant Child Dev, 21:503-520.
23. Evans DE, Rothbart MK (2009) A two-factor model of temperament. Pers Individ Dif, 47:565-570.
24. Ezpeleta L, Penelo E, de la Osa N, Navarro JB, Trepat E (2019) Irritability and parenting practices as mediational variables between temperament and affective, anxiety, and oppositional defiant problems. Aggress Behav, 45:550-560.
25. Goldsmith HH, Buss AH, Plomin R, Rothbart MK, Thomas A, Chess S et al. (1987) Roundtable: What is temperament? Four approaches. Child Dev, 58:505-529.
26. Groh AM, Narayan AJ, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, Roisman GI, Vaughn BE, Fearon RMP et al. (2017) Attachment and temperament in the early life course: a meta-analytic review. Child Dev, 88:770-795.
27. Guryan J, Hurst E, Kearney M (2008) Parental education and parental time with children. J Econ Perspect, 22:23-46.
28. Gülay Ogelman H (2013) Aggression levels of 5- to 6-year-old turkish children in terms of gender, age, and peer relations variables. J Res Child Educ, 27:1-16.
29. Hanish LD, Martin CL, Cook R, DeLay D, Lecheile B, Fabes RA et al. (2021) Building integrated peer relationships in preschool classrooms: the potential of buddies. J Appl Dev Psychol, 73:101257.
30. Hart SL, Behrens KY (2013) Affective and behavioral features of jealousy protest: associations with child temperament, maternal interaction style, and attachment. Infancy, 18, 369-399.
31. Hay DF (2017) The early development of human aggression. Child Dev Perspect, 11:102-106.
32. Hentges RF, Davies PT, Cicchetti D (2015) Temperament and interparental conflict: the role of negative emotionality in predicting child behavioral problems. Child Dev, 86:1333-1350.
33. Herman RI (2021) Aggressive behavior in preschoolers, explanatory theoretical solutions for educators and parents. J Plus Educ, 28:153-161.
34. Honig AS (2006) Infants ve Toddlers: Understanding confusing expressions of emotion. Early Childhood Today, 20:17-19.
35. Hoyniak CP, Donohue MR, Quiñones-Camacho LE, Vogel AC, Perino MT, Hennefield L et al. (2022) Developmental pathways from preschool temper tantrums to later psychopathology. Dev Psychopathol, doi: 10.1017/S0954579422000359.
36. Keenan K, Shaw DS (1994) The development of aggression in toddlers: a study of low-income families. J Abnorm Child Psychol, 22:53-77.
37. Kiff CJ, Lengua, LJ, Zalewski M (2011) Nature and nurturing: parenting in the context of child temperament. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev, 14:251-301.
38. Kim-Cohen J, Arseneault L, Caspi A, Tomás MP, Taylor A, Moffitt TE (2005) Validity of DSM-IV conduct disorder in 4½–5-year-old children: a longitudinal epidemiological study. Am J Psychiatry, 162:1108-1117.
39. Kose S, Sayar K, Kalelioglu U, Aydın N, Celikel FC, Gulec H et al. (2009) Normative data and factorial structure of the turkish version of the temperament and character inventory. Compr Psychiatry, 50:361-368.
40. Kostyrka-Allchorne K, Wass SV, Sonuga-Barke EJS (2020) Research review: do parent ratings of infant negative emotionality and self-regulation predict psychopathology in childhood and adolescence? A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective longitudinal studies. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 61:401-416.
41. Lathren CR, Rao SS, Park J, Bluth K (2021) Self-compassion and current close interpersonal relationships: a scoping literature review. Mindfulness, 12:1078-1093.
42. Lee SJ, Altschul I, Gershoff ET (2015) Wait until your father gets home? mother’s and fathers’ spanking and development of child aggression. Child Youth Serv Rev, 52:158-166.
43. Leerkes EM, Zhou N (2018) Maternal sensitivity to distress and attachment outcomes: interactions with sensitivity to nondistress and infant temperament. J Fam Psychol, 32:753-761.
44. Lengua LJ (2006) Growth in temperament and parenting as predictors of adjustment during children’s transition to adolescence. Dev Psychol, 42:819-832.
45. Levac AM, McCay E, Merka P, Reddon-D’Arcy ML (2008) Exploring parent participation in a parent training program for children’s aggression: understanding and illuminating mechanisms of change. J Child Adolesc Psychiatr Nurs, 21:78-88.
46. López-Romero L, Romero E, Colins O, Andershed H, Hare R, Salekin R (2019) Proposed specifiers for conduct disorder (PCSD): preliminary validation of the parent version in a spanish sample of preschoolers. Psychol Assess, 31:1357-1367.
47. Mäntymaa M, Puura K, Luoma I, Latva R, Salmelin RK, Tamminen T (2012) Predicting internalizing and externalizing problems at five years by child and parental factors in infancy and toddlerhood. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev, 43:153-170.
48. Marcus NE, Lindahl KM, Malik NM (2001) Interparental conflict, children’s social cognitions, and child aggression: a test of a mediational model. J Fam Psychol, 15:315-333.
49. McCoy KP, George MRW, Cummings EM, Davies PT (2013) Constructive and destructive marital conflict, parenting, and children’s school and social adjustment. Soc Dev, 22:641-662.
50. Nielsen JD, Olino TM, Dyson MW, Klein DN (2019) Reactive and regulatory temperament: longitudinal associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms through childhood. J Abnorm Child Psychol, 47:1771-1784.
51. Olson SL, Sameroff AJ, Kerr DCR, Lopez NL, Wellman HM (2005) Developmental foundations of externalizing problems in young children: the role of effortful control. Dev Psychopathol, 17:25-45.
52. Ortiz MÁC, Gándara VB (2006) Study on the relations between temperament, aggression, and anger in children. Aggress Behav, 32:207-215.
53. Padilla CM, Hines CT, Ryan RM (2020) Infant temperament, parenting and behavior problems: variation by parental education and income. J Appl Dev Psychol, 70:101179.
54. Perhamus GR, Ostrov JM (2023) Inhibitory control in early childhood aggression subtypes: mediation by irritability. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev, 54:366-378.
55. Pu DF, Rodriguez CM (2021). Spillover and crossover effects: mothers’ and fathers’ intimate partner violence, parent-child aggression risk, and child behavior problems. Child Maltreat, 26:420-430.
56. Raaijmakers M (2008) Aggressive behaviour in preschool children: neuropsychological correlates, costs of service use, and preventive efforts. (Doctoral thesis). Utrecht, University of Utrecht.
57. Raisor JM, Zhulamanova I, Berridge G (2021) Sparkly princess shoes: a case study examination of a social hierarchy among preschool aged girls. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 13:599-609.
58. Revelle W (1976) Review of a temperament theory of personality development by Arnold H. Buss, Robert Plomin. Am J Psychol, 89:341-342.
59. Rothbart M (1989) Temperament in childhood: a framework. In Temperament in childhood (Eds GA Kohnstamm, JE Bates, MK Rothbart):59–73. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley.
60. Röll J, Koglin U, Petermann F (2012) Emotion regulation and childhood aggression: longitudinal associations. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev, 43:909-923.
61. Rubin DH, Crehan ET, Althoff RR, Rettew DC, Krist E, Harder V et al. (2017) Temperamental characteristics of withdrawn behavior problems in children. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev, 48:478-484.
62. Sears PS (1951) Doll play aggression in normal young children: influence of sex, age, sibling status, father’s absence. Psychol Monogr, 65:1-42.
63. Su S, Pettit GS, Lansford JE, Dodge KA, Bates JE (2020). Children’s competent social-problem solving across the preschool-to-school transition: developmental changes and links with early parenting. Soc Dev, 29:750-766.
64. Swit CS, McMaugh AL, Warburton WA (2018) Teacher and parent perceptions of relational and physical aggression during early childhood. J Child Fam Stud, 27:118-130.
65. Tackett JL (2006) Evaluating models of the personality–psychopathology relationship in children and adolescents. Clin Psychol Rev, 26:584-599.
66. Tanaka A, Raishevich N, Scarpa A (2010) Family conflict and childhood aggression: the role of child anxiety. J Interpers Violence, 25:2127-2143.
67. Thomas A, Chess S (1977) Temperament and Development. New York, Brunner/Mazel.
68. Thomas, A, Chess S, Birch HG (1968) Temperament and Behavior Disorders in Children. New York, New York University Press.
69. Thomas A, Chess S, Korn SJ (1982) The reality of difficult temperament. Merrill Palmer Q, 28:1-20.
70. Türkoğlu B (2019) Preschool teachers’ perspectives on aggressive behaviors in children: a qualitative study. J Educ Train Stud, 7:169-183.
71. van Adrichem DS, Huijbregts SCJ, Van der Heijden KB, van Goozen SHM, Swaab H (2019) Prenatal risk and physical aggression during the first years of life: the gender-specific role of inhibitory control. Infancy, 24:807-826.
72. Véronneau MH, Racer KH, Fosco GM, Dishion TJ (2014) The contribution of adolescent effortful control to early adult educational attainment. J Educ Psychol, 106:730-743.
73. Ward KP, Lee SJ (2020) Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress, responsiveness, and child wellbeing among low-income families. Child Youth Serv Rev, 116:105-218.
74. Weinfield N, Sroufe L, Egeland B, Carlson E (2008) Individual differences in infant-caregiver attachment: conceptual and empirical aspects of security. In Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, And Clinical Applications (Eds J Cassidy, PR Shaver):78–101. New York, Guilford Press.
75. Wolff KT, Baglivio MT, Klein HJ, Piquero AR, DeLisi M, Howell JC (2020) Adverse childhood experiences (aces) and gang involvement among juvenile offenders: assessing the mediation effects of substance use and temperament deficits. Youth Violence Juv Justice, 18:24-53.
76. Wong K, Stacks AM, Rosenblum KL, Muzik M (2017) Parental reflective functioning moderates the relationship between difficult temperament in infancy and behavior problems in toddlerhood. Merrill-Palmer Q, 63:54-76.
77. Wu TCH, Meehan AJ, Rijlaarsdam J, Maughan B, Fearon P, Barker ED (2022). Developmental pathways from toddler difficult temperament to child generalized psychopathology and adult functioning. J Affect Disord, 301:14-22.
78. Xiao SX, Hanish LD, Malouf LM, Martin CL, Lecheile B, Goble P et al. (2022) Preschoolers’ interactions with other-gender peers promote prosocial behavior and reduce aggression: an examination of the buddy up intervention. Early Child Res Q, 60:403-413.