it is easy to imagine being able to identify a “future troublemaker” based on one incident of bad behavior on the playground or one mouthy comment in a grocery store. However, child development experts have argued that there is a distinction between behaviors that may be cause for concern and ‘no single behavior predetermines a child for trouble.
One of the first indications known to experts is the lack of empathy. It can be demonstrated in terms of laughing at others when they are hurt, in terms of not responding to others when they are hurt and in need, and in terms of not compensating when others are hurt because of their actions. It is clear that the studies about developing empathy demonstrate that children need to develop empathy; however, older children with lack of empathy experience difficulties in their relationships. It is mentioned that experts believe children may be okay in front of others and may be a bully on their own.
Cruel patterns, whether it is towards animals or those perceived to be weaker than themselves, can also be an indicator. There has been evidence of a link between animal abuse and acts of violence and antisocial behavior. This can be part of a pattern of behaviors rather than being itself a problem and may also be the result of a lack of feelings of guilt and a propensity for taking advantage of others.
The other challenge that is believed to be emanating from this trend is entitlement. According to psychologists, entitlement is believed to be much more than being “spoiled”. Entitlement is the belief that one is entitled to some kind of reward or recognition for which one does not have to put any effort. Such behavior can be encouraged by some parental decisions, which may include failure to discipline the children so that peace is maintained, granting the children the same level of authority over decisions that are supposed to be made by adults, or even bribing the children to behave.
Such behavior can lead to a reduction in the level of resilience and empathy. This bullying behavior may emerge out of the aforementioned issues of low empathy and feelings of entitlement, which are further aggravated by not having these issues addressed by those in authority in the affected group. Outcomes from research studies on social process in schools show that bullying can be lessened by punishments and group discussions on hurt feelings, although doing nothing to address it has been found to encourage bullies and demoralize those who are not. The contemporary problem of too much screen time is the additional component that enters into this equation.
Too much time spent on screen time has been discovered to be related to problems in regulating one’s own emotions, properly interpreting non-verbal communication, and even to changes in one’s brain that contribute to a lack of empathy. Spending too much time on screen time means that instead of using it to communicate to a human about a conflict or an emotional incident that happened, children are not afforded an opportunity to work on repairing and putting oneself into another’s shoes, which is a very important part of being socially adept.
One must remember that early signs do not mean predetermination of outcome. Having a warm and loving involvement on the part of the parent and having emotional intelligence can be a very powerful tool in repairing this problem. For children who display a great deal of callous-unemotional traits, training them to better understand and interpret another’s emotions can be very helpful. Having a long-term involvement with the child can be very helpful to ensure that this problem is not a lifelong problem when it comes to social skills.”
