It has long been observed that difficult children, even as young as age 4, are often biased in how they process information. Their perceptions and cognitions are faulty, including the ones they maintain concerning their parents and other authority figures. Adolescents classified as aggressive are far more likely to attribute hostile intentions to their teachers and blame them for the outcome of a hypothetical scenario than nonaggressive peers. Other studies have found that difficult children tend to impute threatening intentions to others, are easily slighted, and evaluate disobedience, defiance, and revenge as positive characteristics or as the only solutions to problems.
The old notion that difficult and especially delinquent children are what they are because of a low self-esteem has been debunked in recent years. In fact, many antisocial children think highly of themselves and this inflated sense of self simply reinforces their bad behaviours. It allows them to filter out negative feedback from parents and teachers. As well, their behaviour often results in punitive reactions from adults and even peers. But, instead of being motivated to change, they interpret these reactions as a sign that they are being unfairly treated and this goads them into seeking revenge. Other children interpret negative reactions as a mark of status or a rationale for further maliciousness—especially when they receive the support of peers who are similarly oriented.
... In contrast, prosocial adolescents are more likely to endorse values and motives consistent with conformity to interactional roles and are far less likely to attribute hostile intent, even when reprimanded (Nelson and Crick, 1999). It is then easier for their parents and teachers to guide them to internalize and act upon generally accepted norms of behaviour.
Another two-and-a-half-year-old got a different message and showed different behavior. The parent sat the child next to him, frequently acknowledged the child, and kept him involved in the family conversation. As soon as the toddler began to climb, the father immediately redirected him and politely planted the climber back in his seat. With a combination of creative distraction and respectful restraint, the parent conveyed to the child that he was expected to refrain from climbing because climbing would disturb the people in the next booth. The child got the message that any effort to climb the seat would not be okay.
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