Tremblay – variations in physical aggression

Physical aggression in children is present in almost every child early, but there is variation and there’s a lot of variation. Some are more peaceful than others at two years of age. I tend to say that some have turbo motors and some don’t have turbo motors. And most probably these differences are genetically related. It could also be something that happened in utero, it can be something that happened during the first few years of life. Some children are already more in control than others early on.  

And we can see that in the difference between boys and girls. Boys are clearly more physically aggressive very early on than girls. So even if there is a genetic component, it’s clear that the environment is playing an important role. But the environment needs to be better in terms of the quality of the environment if you have a turbo motor. Cause if you have a turbo motor you need to learn to put on the brakes. And learning to put on the brakes is something that you learn in your environment. Some children have sort of the brakes are working spontaneously much better and clearly boys have more difficulty learning to put on the brakes. Not all the boys, but in general boys need more support to learn to put on these brakes. So we need to be attentive to this when we have groups of boys and girls. It’s clear that boys tend to be more turbulent and they need to have the right support to be able to learn alternatives to aggressive behavior.