Some Meanings of Aggressive Behavior in Children

Abstract

Overactivity and aggressive, destructive behavior in children are often regarded as precursors of juvenile delin quency. This symptomatology is nonspecific for diagnosis or causation. Review of typical cases shows the wide range of meanings such behavior may have and the varied backgrounds, in a causal sense, from which such children may come. If delinquency is to be reduced or prevented, more will have to be learned scientifically about this whole subject. Both clinical workers and the general public will have to revise their atti tudes toward and their ways of dealing with aggressive children.