Aggression in Children:: Influence of Sex and Situational Variables

• Autor(a) principal: Magalhães, Celina Maria Colino
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Otta, Emma
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Psicologia (Universidade de Brasília. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/revistaptp/article/view/17207
• topic: Comportamento agressivo; Crianças pré-escolares; Diferenças sexuais; Aggressive behavior; Pre-school children; Sex differences

Aggression in pre-school children was investigated as a funetion of sex and situational variables (patio,classroom and park). One hundred and twenty observations were made in a public nursery, located in the western section ofSão Paulo serving a Iow-income population. Subjects included 20 children, 10 of each sex, between five and seven years old.Each focai observational session lasted 15 minutes, and each child was observed in three settings: (a) one session in theclassroom; (b) four sessions at nursery patio; (c) one session in a park during an excursion outside of the nursery. Analysesrevealed that sex differences emerged, showing a significantly higher frequency of aggressive acts in males compaired tofemales. Aside from frequency, behavioral differences were found with verbal aggression being rarely emitted, and only byfemales. Aggressive acts oceurred more frequently at nursery patio then in the park, both in males and in females.