In Chapter 2 the Psychodynamic Theory of Freud, Cognitive Developmental Theory of Piaget and the Attachment Theory of Bowlby were discussed. These theories described the psychological factors that may lead to the development of aggression and bullying.
The psychodynamic theory of Freud suggests that all human behaviour results from the Eros (life instinct) and the Thanatos (death force). Freud viewed aggressive and bullying type of behaviour as instinctive behaviour resulting from an individual’s attempt to redirect the self- destructive death instinct away from themselves by acting in an aggressive or bullying manner towards other individuals (Avis et al., 2009; Freud, 1949; Sadock & Sadock, 2007).
From a developmental perspective, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that during the pre-operational stage of development (ages 2 to 7 years), children develop social interactional skills. Children are thus able to make friends and maintain friendships. However,
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according to the attachment theory of Bowlby (1969), the ability to positively relate to others requires a child to have formed secure attachments as infants. Research showed that insecure attachments as assessed through behavioural observational studies are related to involvement in bullying problems during the early school years of a child (Ainsworth et al., 1978; Bowlby, 1969).
In a study conducted by Fanti and Georgiou in 2013, the aim of the study was to investigate the difference between bullies, victims and bully victims in terms of the quality of their relationship with their parents and the quality of parent-child relationship and bullying behaviour. The results showed a positive relationship between bullying and parent-child conflict. According to Fite, Greening, and Stoppelbein (2008) children coming from a home environment where parents act in an insensitive way towards their child and do not attend to their child’s needs may result in the child demonstrating anti-social traits and unemotional characteristics. Antisocial traits may include lacking empathy. They concluded that children who engage in bullying behaviour are likely to have insecure relationships with their parents and less supportive and affectionate fathers.
According to Piaget (1952) children between the ages of 2 and 7 years can grasp negative actions and concepts such as bullying and lying. This means that children can engage in bullying behaviour and understand the message when the effects and consequences are discussed with them. Early discussion may prevent the early development of bullying behaviour (Laas, 2012).
As mentioned earlier, various psychological disorders including conduct disorders (CD and ODD) and attention deficit disorders (ADD and ADHD) may be related to the development of aggression and bullying in children. Laas (2012) described the psychological causes of bullying as conduct problems. Conduct problems can be divided into rule-breaking and aggressive behaviour. Rule-breaking behaviour includes behaviour such as smoking, abusing substances at school and vandalising school or teacher property. These types of behaviour usually put a child in conflict with the law. According to Laas, these types of behaviours are commonly seen as the cause of bullying if they are not stopped at an early stage or age (Laas, 2012). Aggressive behaviour is conflict that may be intentional, unintentional, direct or indirect and it can be acted out in many forms including physical, social and verbal. It can also be experienced in several ways including physical, emotional, psychological and mental (Laas, 2012).
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Research showed that children who are constantly in conflict with the law or children who are constantly involved in fighting at school are at risk of developing psychological and psychopathological problems. A few psychological disorders which are internal causes of bullying resulting from constant and persistent rule-breaking and aggressive behaviour will be briefly discussed.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD):
Table 3.1 includes the criteria for a child to be diagnosed with ODD. Children who are diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist with ODD, display age-inappropriate recurrent patterns of stubborn, defiant and hostile behaviour (Mash & Wolfe, 2005).
Table 3.1
DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) DSM-5
A. A pattern of angry/irritable mood, argumentative/defiant behaviour, or vindictiveness lasting at least 6
months as evidenced by at least four symptoms from any of the following categories and exhibited during interaction with at least one individual who is not a sibling.
Angry/Irritable Mood
1) The child often loses his or her temper. 2) The child is often touchy or easily annoyed. 3) The child is often angry or resentful.
Argumentative/Defiant Behaviour
4) The child often argues with authority figures or, for children and adolescents, with adults.
5) The child often actively defies or refuses to comply with requisites from authority figures or with rules. 6) The child often deliberately annoys others.
7) The child often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehaviour.
Vindictiveness
8) The child has been spiteful or vindictive at least twice within the past 6 months.
Note: The persistence and frequency of these behaviours should be used to distinguish a behaviour that is within normal limits from a behaviour that is symptomatic. For children younger than 5 years, the behaviour should occur on most days for a period of at least 6 months unless otherwise noted. For individuals 5 years or older, the behaviour should occur at least once a week for at least 6 months, unless otherwise noted. While these frequency criteria provide guidance on a minimal level of frequency to define symptoms, other factors should also be considered, such as whether the frequency and intensity of the behaviours are outside a range that is normative for the individuals developmental level, age, gender and culture.
B. The disturbance in behaviour is associated with distress in the individual or others in his or her immediate
social context (e.g. family, peer group, work colleagues), or it impacts negatively on social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.
C. The behaviours do not occur exclusively during the course of a psychotic, substance use, depressive, or
bipolar disorder. Also, the criteria are not met for disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Specify current severity:
Mild: Symptoms are confined to only one setting (e.g. at home, at school, at work, with peers). Moderate: Some symptoms are present in at least two settings.
Severe: Some symptoms are present in three or more settings (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 462).
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It is important to note that a criterion can only be met if the behaviour of the child occurs more frequently than it is typically observed in other children of comparable age and developmental level. ODD cannot be diagnosed when the criteria for conduct disorder (CD) is met (Mash & Wolfe, 2005).
Regarding the etiology of ODD, Sadock and Sadock (2007) stated that children exhibit a range of temperamental predispositions to strong will, strong preferences or great assertiveness. They argued that parents who model extreme ways of expressing and enforcing their will on their children may contribute to the development of chronic conflict between the parents and their child. This may lead to children acting in the same manner towards other adults or other authority figures. Research studies showed that environmental trauma such as illness, chronic incapacity and mental retardation experienced in late childhood, can lead to oppositionalism in children as an effort to defend themselves against feelings of helplessness, anxiety and low self-esteem (Abulizi & Pryor, 2017; Sadock & Sadock, 2007).
The Psychoanalytic Theory of Freud implicates unresolved conflicts as fuelling aggressive behaviours directed towards authority figures. According to the Behaviourists, oppositionality is a reinforced and learned behaviour through which a child can exert control over a parent or other authority figures (Sadock & Sadock, 2007).
Conduct Disorder (CD):
Children who are diagnosed with CD can be characterised by repetitive and persistent patterns of severe aggressive and anti-social acts that involves the intent to inflict serious pain and harm, infringes the rights of others by using physical and verbal aggression, stealing and committing acts of vandalism (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM-5 included the following as main features of the diagnostic criteria for CD as indicated in Table 3.2.
Sadock and Sadock (2007) argued there is no definite cause for CD. However, according to Brower and Price, (2001) genetic factors such as damage to the frontal lobe and environmental factors including child abuse, poverty and parental substance abuse has been linked to conduct disorder in children. Kendler, Aggen, and Patrick (2013) also found a strong connection between genetic factors and the development of conduct disorder in children.
97 Table 3.2
DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Conduct Disorder (CD) DSM-5
A. A repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour in which the basic rights of others or major age-inappropriate
societal norms or rules are violated, as manifested by the presence of at least three of the following 15 criteria in the past 12 months from any of the categories below, with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months:
Aggression to people and animals
1) The individual often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others. 2) The individual often initiates physical fights.
3) The individual has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others (e.g. a bat, brick, broken bottle, knife or gun).
4) The individual has been physically cruel to other individuals. 5) The individual has been physically cruel to animals.
6) The individual has stolen while confronting a victim (e.g. mugging, purse snatching, extortion and armed robbery).
7) The individual has forced another into sexual activity.
Destruction of property
8) The individual has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the intention of causing serious damage. 9) The individual has deliberately destroyed other’s property (other than by fire setting).
Deceitfulness or theft
10) The individual has broken into someone else’s house, building or car.
11) The individual often lies to obtain goods or favours or to avoid obligations (i.e. cons others).
12) The individual has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim (e.g. shoplifting, but without breaking and entering; forgery).
Serious violations of rules
13) The individual often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, beginning before age 13 years. 14) The individual has run away from home overnight at least twice while living in the parental or parental surrogate home, or once without returning for a lengthy period.
15) The child is often truant from school, beginning before age 13 years.
B. The disturbance in behaviour causes clinically significant impairment in social, academic or occupational functioning.
C. If the individual is age 18 years or older, criteria are not met for antisocial personality disorder. Specify whether:
Childhood-onset type: Individuals show at least one symptom characteristic of conduct disorder prior to age
10 years.
Adolescent-onset type: Individuals show no symptom characteristic of conduct disorder prior to age 10 years. Unspecified onset: Criteria for a diagnosis of conduct disorder are met, but there is not enough information
available to determine whether the onset of the first symptom was before or after age 10 years.
Specify if:
With limited pro-social emotions: To qualify for this specifier, an individual must have displayed at least two
of the following characteristics persistently over at least 12 months and in multiple relationships and settings.
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These characteristics reflect the individual’s typical pattern of interpersonal and emotional functioning over this period and not just occasional occurrences in some situations. Thus, to assess the criteria for the specifier, multiple information sources are necessary. In addition to the individual’s self-report, it is necessary to consider reports by others who have known the individual for extended periods of time including, teachers, parents, extended family members and peers).
Lack of remorse or guilt: The individual does not feel bad or guilty when he or she does something wrong
(exclude remorse when expressed only when caught and/or facing punishment). The individual shows a general lack of concern about the negative consequences of his or her actions. For example, the individual is not remorseful after hurting someone or does not care about the consequences of breaking rules.
Callous – lack of empathy: The individual disregards and is unconcerned about the feelings of others. The
individual is described as col and uncaring. The person appears more concerned about the effects of his or her actions on himself or herself, rather than their effects on others, even when they result in substantial harm to others.
Unconcerned about performance: The individual is not concerned about poor or problematic performance at
school, at work or in other important activities. The individual does not put forth the effort necessary to perform well, even when expectations are clear, and typically blames others for his or her poor performance.
Shallow or deficient affect: The individual does not express any feelings or show any emotions towards others,
except in ways that seem shallow, insincere, or superficial (e.g. actions contradict the emotion displayed, can turn emotions on or off very quickly) or when emotional expressions are used for gain (e.g. emotions displayed to manipulate or intimidate others).
Specify current severity:
Mild: Few if any conduct problems in excess of those required to make the diagnosis are present, and conduct
problems cause relatively minor harm to others (e.g. lying, truancy, staying out after dark without permission and other rule-breaking).
Moderate: The number of conduct problems and the effect on others are intermediate between those specified
in “mild” and those in “severe” (e.g. stealing without confronting a victim and vandalism).
Severe: Many conduct problems in excess of those required to make the diagnosis are present, or conduct
problems cause considerable harm to others (e.g. forced sexual activities, physical cruelty to humans and animals, use of a weapon, stealing while confronting the victim and breaking and entering. (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 469)
Note. American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 469
There appears to be an overlap between the symptoms of ODD and CD. However, symptoms of ODD typically emerge two to three years before CD. Symptoms of ODD can develop at the age of 6 and symptoms of CD can develop at the age of 9. Since the symptoms for ODD emerge first, it is possible that they can be precursors of CD in some children. It is important to note that not all children with ODD will be diagnosed with CD as they get older. However, research indicates that most children who have been diagnosed with CD continue to display ODD features (Pardini & Fite, 2010). Regarding CD, research found that persistent aggressive and anti-social behaviour in childhood may be a precursor for anti-social personality disorder (APD) in adulthood. According to Mash & Wolfe (2005) more than 40% of children who have been diagnosed with CD develop APD as adults.
99 Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD):
Research on the relationship between ADHD and bullying showed that some children who are diagnosed with ADHD are more likely than become bullies (Keder, Sege, Raffalli, & Augustyn, 2017). In a study conducted on the relationship between ADHD and bullying, researchers found that children diagnosed with ADHD are four times as likely as other children to become bullies (Carroll, 2008). The study included 577 fourth grade learners from Stockholm who were observed for a year. The researchers interviewed teachers, parents and children to determine which learners were likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. Learners who showed signs of ADHD were then evaluated by a neurologist who specialises in working with children to determine whether they could be diagnosed. The researchers also included questions about bullying.
The results showed that it is of utmost importance for children to be observed, especially how children who have been diagnosed with ADHD interact with their peers. The researchers argued that these children might display the symptoms of ADHD as a result of being bullied themselves. This means that not only can children who display symptoms of ADHD result in bullying others as a result of their learning difficulties, but children who are being bullied can also display symptoms of ADHD and therefore professionals should be careful when a diagnosis for ADHD is made (Carroll, 2008). The diagnostic criteria for a child to be diagnosed with ADHD is summarised in Table 3.3.
According to Mash and Wolfe (2005), children who are diagnosed with ADHD experience many problems with their peers. They described children with ADHD as bothersome, stubborn, socially awkward and socially insensitive. These children are often described by their peers as socially conspicuous, loud, intense and quick to react. As a result of their behaviour and how they are experienced by their peers, these children are often disliked by others, rejected by others, have few friends and have difficulty regulating their emotions. The difficulties they experience with regulating their behaviour and their emotions and the aggressiveness that often accompanies ADHD lead to conflict with their peers (Mash & Wolfe, 2005).
Although there may be many factors that may lead to the development of ADHD, current research suggests that ADHD as a disorder may result from genetic and biological factors. Mash and Wolfe argued that as ADHD is a complex and chronic disorder of the brain and any explanation that focuses on one cause is inadequate. The primary approach for treating ADHD combines stimulant medication, parent training and educational intervention (Mash & Wolfe, 2005).
100 Table 3.3
DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) DSM-5
A. A persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or
development, as characterised by 1 and or 2:
Inattention: Six (or more) of the following symptoms have persisted for at least 6 months to a degree that is
inconsistent with developmental level and that negatively impacts directly on social and academic/occupational activities. Note: The symptoms are not solely a manifestation of oppositional behaviour, defiance, hostility, or failure to understand tasks or instructions. For older adolescents and adults (age 17 and older), at least five symptoms are required.
a) Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, or during other activities (e.g. overlooks or misses details, work is inaccurate).
b) Often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities (e.g. has difficulty remaining focused during lectures, conversations or lengthy reading).
c) Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly (e.g. mind seems elsewhere even in the absence of any obvious distraction).
d) Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (e.g. starts tasks but quickly loses focus and is easily side-tracked).
e) Often has difficulty organising tasks and activities (e.g. difficulty managing sequential tasks, difficulty keeping materials and belongings in order, messy, disorganised work, has poor time management, fails to meet deadlines).
f) Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort (e.g. schoolwork or homework, for older adolescents and adults, preparing reports, completing forms, reviewing lengthy papers). g) Often loses accessories necessary for tasks or activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools, wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones).
h) Is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli (for older adolescents and adults, may include unrelated thoughts).
i) Is often forgetful in daily activities (e.g. doing chores, running errands, for older adolescents and adults, returning calls, paying bills, keeping appointments.
Hyperactivity and impulsivity: Six (or more) of the following symptoms have persisted for at least 6 months