Children, Peace and Aggression in

Abstract

The literature on peaceful children has the usual kind of bias we see in the field of psychology. Most of the research examines children through a psychopathology lens, testing hypotheses on the origins of aggression and ways to reduce aggressive behavior. Moreover, most of the published research that bears on aggression has been conducted in the West, thereby limiting generalizations. With these limitations in mind, this article looks at what we know about the psychosocial causes of aggression, ways to reduce aggressive tendencies, and how to encourage peaceful thoughts, emotions, and actions in children.