The recent rash of youngsters apprehended for heinous crimes has been very disturbing. What analysis has revealed is a generation under severe pressure to perform and who are exposed to violence in several forms ~ at home, neighbourhood, school and media, mainly television. At the same time, seeking help for behavioural changes is rare. And so, kids today are quick to react violently.
A colleague last week witnessed a mini gang war between children in the age group of 6-15 years. It was sparked off with four boys in their early teens walking by a construction site adjacent to a car workshop. They spotted three little boys sitting on a couple of tyres that they played with. The older boys demanded the tyres and the younger lot resisted. Soon some more boys joined in and a brawl ensued. The workshop workers intervened to separate the two groups though each continued to issue dire threats to the other.
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Surely, the youngsters’ aggressive attitude reflects the environment they grow up in ~ mainly their families. Psychologists have noted that families and neighbourhoods where domestic violence is common, are known to influence the children to follow the same behaviour. A violent person, feared by the rest of the family and neighbours, quickly becomes a “role model” for children. “Might is right” is the rule they go by.
In well-to-do families, there may not be such blatant aggression by the older family member or neighbours. But there’s so much violence all around a child ~ right from the games one plays to the cartoons and films that a child watches. Children rarely release their enormous amounts of energy by way of outdoor games. This, say child psychologists, often finds release in the form of behavioural aberrations.
