The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Aggression in children on the rise, say experts

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Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
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Karnataka

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Aggression in children on the rise, say experts

Staff Reporter

Reasons range from media influence to dysfunctional families

A boy opened fire with an airgun at two classmates who ‘used to bully him’
Psychiatrists call this kind of intentional violence ‘proactive aggression’

BANGALORE: While rising violence among children has been a subject that has been discussed for quite some time and attributed to several factors from media influence to dysfunctional families, incidents of gun culture in schools in India are rare.

On Saturday, a young boy opened fire at his classmates with an airgun after school hours near his school premises, injuring two of them.

The victims, whose parents are yet to press charges, had been allegedly bullying him for the past one month.

In the past two months in the country, two students have been killed in schools as a result of rivalry — shootouts at Gurgaon in December and Chorwari in Madhya Pradesh in early January.

In both instances, the perpetrators of the violence had reportedly been bullied by the victims, which had provoked them into violence.

In psychiatry, this kind of intentional violence is called “proactive aggression,” and there are several theories about the causes.

“The issue with this is that the bully lets out all his insecurities and anger and if the victim of his aggression does not have a proper support system or is emotionally weak, then things can go bad,” says Sulata Shenoy, child psychiatrist at Sagar Apollo.

With value systems being replaced by a competitive environment, there has been a shift in the way children think.

“Most children are taught to be selfish and they feel they need to settle scores by themselves, without any adult intervention,” she explains.

Experts say that aggression in children is on the rise.

Though it can be attributed to a variety of reasons such as exposure to violence in media, computer games and aggression at home, psychiatrists say that most of it has to do with parenting patterns.

“In clinical practice, we find that there is more aggression in children and confusion among parents about how to handle children. Children who are bullied have emotional issues and find no support system at home,” says Brunda Amruthraj, clinical psychiatrist.

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