Do We Need Anger Coping Programs For Our Children?

Somehow America's children are learning that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems. Researchers across the country are looking for ways to interrupt that learning process. Most agree that the trend toward more violence cannot be explained simply. A diverse group of factors--violence in the media, poor parenting practices, stresses on the family such as unemployment--produce people with shorter fuses and a bent toward aggressive behavior.

Now some scientists implicate biology as well. Studies of brain chemistry and heart physiology have shown that physical markers may flag children at risk. Because genetic and environmental effects are so tightly intertwined, it's difficult to say whether these markers reflect inherited traits or an adverse childhood, says Columbia researcher Daniel Pine.

Aggressive behavior in children and adults has been conceptualized as being in part due to an inability to regulate emotional responses to anger-producing stimuli (Lockhman, Dunn & Wagner, 1997). Children's aggressive behavior has been related to intense emotional arousal in general and to high levels of anger in particular (Eisenberg, Fabes, Nyman, Bernzweig, & Pinuelas, 1994).

When individuals perceive themselves as endangered or threatened, they have common physiological responses at two levels (Goleman, 1995) and can have two types of anger (Lochman et al., 1997). When threat is perceived, the thalamus signals the neocortex, which then processes the perceived causes and possible responses to the threat. The result can be a deliberate, calculated anger response. The action of the amygdala on the adrenocortical branch of the nervous system can create a general background state of action readiness, which can last for hours or for days. This activation can be stimulated by stress of all kinds, and individuals become more prone to serious anger arousal if they are already activated by mild to moderate irritation and frustration. When a person is in this state of readiness, even minor triggers can produce highly intense anger responses. Thus, anger can build on anger (Goleman, 1995). Escalating anger can be the result of a series of perceived provocations, each of which triggers further arousal, which dissipates slowly.

In addition to the first physiological response to perceived threat, the thalamus can signal the amygdala, and, separate from the collateral cortical processing, the amygdala can directly trigger a surge in heart rate and blook pressure and produce a rage response. This limbic surge can release catecholamines and lead to an energy rush, which may last for a period of only a few minutes. Anger can develop very rapidly because of the initial limbic surge and can be manifest overtly in increased cardiovascular activity. As a side note: Highly aggressive boys have been found to have lower resting heart rates than nonaggressive boys, but they can display a sharp surge in heart rate following interpersonal provocation (Craven 1996).

Intervention with aggressive children is often based on a social-cognitive theoretical model, which describes social behavior as a function of children's perceptions of their immediate social environment and of their ideas about how to resolve the perceived social conflicts. Where do we believe they learn these ideas? Where is this behavior being modeled? Remember, it is not the stimulus event itself that provokes the child's response, but rather the child's cognitive processing of and about that event.

Did you know that 8% of students report being criminally victimized in school? 12% of elementary teachers have been threatened by a student...elementary school teachers! A recent poll has shown that the lack of discipline, fighting, violence, and gangs are the top problems confronting U.S. schools.

I'm curious about what the average parent and/or teacher thinks about the following: In order to intervene effectively in the lives of aggressive children and youth, school personnel must have an understanding of what we currently know about the development of aggression. Also, parents and teachers need to work together to create programs designed to reduce teacher- and parent-directed aggression; improve on-task behavior in the classroom; and enhance participants' verbal assertion and compromise skills, social competence, and academic achievement....an Anger Coping Program.