Many children bite, hit and are essentially aggressive during their childhood (or more aggressive than average). It is usually said that when a child behaves that way, he is copying patterns he has seen at home or on the street or trying to get his parents' attention because he feels that something in his relationship is not going well.
It could be the first, it could be the second, it could be both, and now a third could also be added to these two factors, which is genetics. That is, if your child is aggressive, it is possible that Much of the blame is their genes.
At least this is what researchers from the University of Montreal have concluded that have conducted a study with 700 pairs of identical and non-identical twins.
Apparently, to do the study, they asked the mothers of the children to rate the physical aggression levels of their children (in actions such as hitting, biting, kicking or fighting) when they were 20, 32 and 50 months old. From these data, they observed the genetic factors and the environmental factors, that is, the environment, how the family behaves, etc., to know to what extent they could affect the aggressiveness.
The researchers saw that aggressiveness was closely linked to genetic factors, and to a lesser extent the social environment. In fact, they came to affirm that physical aggression is mainly due to genes until the age of 50 months (just over four years) and that thereafter, if it continued, it was more linked to environmental factors, such as education given to them by parents, the school environment, etc.
Will it be true?
According to the researchers, as I have told you, up to four years it seems that the most aggressive children are simply because they were born that way. However, I have my doubts. Many children are rather aggressive as children, probably because they do not know how to communicate in any other way, and if you do nothing they continue to behave in the same way. However, if you divert attention, if you change the strong clap for a caress with the "handsome, handsome", if little by little you are teaching that it hurts and you are telling the child that "do not hit, talk and tell what you upset", many children manage to express themselves before releasing their hand, despite the body asking them that.
In addition, if as I say, many children are aggressive, moved and "terrible" as a result of which we spend little time with them, play little with them or try to educate them with "because I say so" and always emphatically, change The attitude of parents to a closer and loving relationship can also work wonders.
So it seems a bit late to leave the environmental effect as influential after 50 months, because I am sure that the environment, the environment and the place where you grow up has a lot to do with how aggressive you can become before that age. I don't know about you, but I remember that the first year of school, which I entered with 4 years (others were still three) none of the children were sticking. Someone had his hand gone once, but they were very rare occasions compared to what now 4-year-olds can get to stick. Does it mean that there has been a genetic change in the passage of a generation? Not impossible. In my view it has to do with today's children feeling more free to do what they want and, some, too free. Come on, there could be behind an excess of permissiveness on the part of the parents.
Others, yes, others will do it for genetics until the day comes when the home environment works the miracle and the child that was once terrible suddenly becomes a much more affectionate and respectful child. Perhaps because of the environment, perhaps because it is already more rational and more capable of understanding and expressing itself or perhaps because of both.
In any case it is interesting to know that genes have a lot to say in the character of our children. Although we already suspected this many, right? Because who has never said that "is stubborn, like his father", or "has taken the character of his mother"?
