Adults are protecting themselves in schools – Safety sleeves and jackets are becoming more common. What about Finnish women's relational aggressiveness?

Finland's largest tabloid reports that schools and kindergarten are buying armors to protect themselves against children. Children's emotional and social adjustment, as well as cognitive development, unpack, adjust, and develop during the first 4-5 years of living. This is also referred to as the executive functions. Early education lays the foundation for entrepreneurial thinking and social creativity for problem solving and innovation. If early upbringing fails, the result is executive dysfunction and in some cases antisocial behavior. According to science-based studies, children who grow up with both parents or the father have better executive functions, compared to children who grow up with a single mother. In Finland, women's relational aggressiveness (psychological domestic violence) is the big issues. 40% of the school children are victims of psychological domestic violence.

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Finland's largest tabloid reports that schools and kindergarten are buying armors to protect themselves against children.

Link to source.

Why is this happening?

Children's emotional and social adjustments, as well as cognitive development, unpack, adjust, and develop during the first 4-5 years of living. This is also referred to as the executive functions – a set of emotional and cognitive abilities that allow individuals to plan, organize, guide, regulate, and evaluate behavior forward in time. It's a broad concept containing several subsets which help us to be both instrumentally and epistemically rational in a prospective manner (Adornetti, 2016; Ardila, 2008; Ardila et al. 2018; Atance and O'Neill, 2001, 2005; Baker et al. 2020; Barkley, 2001; Baumrind, 1966; Coolidge and Wynn, 2018; Farran och Formby, 2011; Galistel, 2017; Gilbert och Wilson, 2007; Kaku, 2014; Lezak, 1982; Liu et al. 2017; Moulton and Kosslyn, 2009; Pluck, Cerone and Villagomez-Pacheco, 2023; Pringle, 2016; Schacter och Addis, 2007; Suddendorf, Bulley, and Miloyan, 2018; Szpunar et al. 2014).

Early education lays the foundation for entrepreneurial thinking and social creativity for problem solving and innovation (Cacciolatti och Lee, 2015; Mitchell et al. 2002; Österberg, 2012; Wynn, Coolidge och Bright, 2009).

If early upbringing fails, the result is executive dysfunction* (Elliott, 2003) and in some cases antisocial behavior (Calkins och Keane, 2009; Moffitt et al. 2001).

According to science-based studies, children who grow up with both parents or the father have better emotional and social adjustment, as well as cognitive development, compared to children who grow up with a single mother (LaFlamme et al. 2012; Olsson, 2022; Rolle et al. 2019; Sethna, 2017; Vieno et al. 2009, 2014; Österberg, 2004):

“A review of 28 studies on the effects of father absence on children's cognitive ability (Shinn, 1978) indicates that father absence as a function of divorce is negatively related to intellectual competence in children; this has also been demonstrated in previous studies (Blanchard & Biller, 1971; Crescimbeni, 1965; Ferri, 1976; Hetherington et al., 1978, 1982; Radin, 1976; Radin et al., 1994; Santrock, 1972; Sutton–Smith et al., 1978). Shinn (1978) believes that the results of the review are consistent with the hypothesis that children's interaction with their parents forms a platform for cognitive development, and that a reduction in this interaction inhibits cognitive development” (Österberg, 2004, s ).

Studies using proper measures, e.g. the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979; Straus et al. 1996) shows the following pattern:

• Physical violence – women account for more than half of occurrences and injuries.
  
  
• Lethal violence – equally unlikely (0.0000005) to affect children, men or women (Liem och Koenraadt, 2008). In filicide, however, the typical perpetrator is a mother. Recently, five (5) children died from maternal violence.
  
  
• Psychological violence (relational aggressiveness) includes custodial conflicts and parental alienation and is typically a female behavior – typically female.

(Archer,2000, 2004; Bates, Graham-Kevan och Archer, 2014; Bates och Graham-Kevan, 2016; Bates, 2018; Bates, Kaye, Pennington och Hamlin, 2019; Bergkvist, 2002; Crick och Grotpeter, 1995; Hyde, 2005; Thornton et al. 2012).

Listen to Dr Elizabeth Bates:Intimate Partner Violence (34 minuter).

In Finland:

• women's relational aggressiveness is their biggest challenge to deal with (Helsingfors police, April, 2022).
  
  
• Finnish school children fail reading comprehension and numeracy (the Ministry of education and culture, May, 2022).
  
  
• 40% of Finnish school kids are victims of psychological violence at home (Estlander, November, 2023).

*executive dysfunction

Also read:

Women's domestic violence, diet-heart hypothesis, and ADHD. The case for Typ 1 & 2 errors and malnutrition

Profiles of climate change distress and climate denialism during adolescence: A two-cohort longitudinal study. Another case of science denial

Nutrition psychology. ADHD and Alzheimer's disease in Finland. Nurture is more likely explanation compared to nature

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