Verbal Aggressive Behaviours of Elementary School Age Children

Abstract

Background: Verbal abuse has negative effects that will ultimately affect child development. Verbal
abuse committed by parents may potentially leave a trauma in children’s lives and affect their growth and
development. Children’s social environment where they carry out interactions may be the factor of verbal
abuse of children.
Methods: The design of this study is cross-sectional, with total population of 328 children of school age.
259 children were selected with proportional random sampling technique. The independent variables were
parental verbal abuse and psychosocial factors, while the dependent variable was children verbal aggressive
behaviors. The instrument used was questionnaire sheets. The analysis performed was Logistic Regression
Analysis.
Results: Verbal abuse behaviors were influenced by parental verbal abuse factor (p=0.003) and psychosocial
factor (p=0.03).
Conclusions: Parenting style and children’s social environment contribute to the probability of children
verbal abuse. Family intervention is highly expected to prevent aggressive child behavior.