Preventing Violence in Children

Kathryn Seifert is a PhD in psychology and author of the recent book How Children Become Violent? She has focused on the way people interact with one another and the way communities solve social problems. Following is a brief section of my interview with Dr. Seifert.

Dr. Kathryn Seifert on Children’s Mental Health

Ernest: Do you think modern American society, or modern urban way of living in general, is playing a key role in Disrupted Attachment Patterns in children?

Kathryn: As I say in the book, no one thing can lead to violence, but once you start adding up the risk factors and reducing the resiliency factors, the risk for violence goes up. For instance, take a family driven by economic needs to work all the time and so they have no family time. Mom and dad can’t supervise the child’s activities and when they discipline him they are very inconsistent and ineffectual. Jr. hangs out on the street and gets into a gang. The risk factors add up and violence is more likely to occur. Our society is very technology oriented and moving very fast, we must remember that positive human relationships are still vital to the survival of our society.

Ernest: In How Children Become Violent you have briefly criticized modern media for negatively affecting children. Would you like to explain a little and offer suggestions for improvement?

Kathryn: Violence in the media is not good for children for several reasons: Can violent media cause youth to be violent? The answer is, “Not by itself.” However, if you take a young man who is in an antisocial peer group, failing in school, beaten by his father and who has watched his father beat his mother all his life, watching excessive amounts of violent media may tip the scale. Children can be desensitized by watching too much violence and should be limited in that sphere of influence. Parents need to be involved in their children’s lives. They need to know what their children are watching and guide their experiences. Sitting and watching too much TV or playing video games without learning appropriate social skills and positive interaction with others is also not good for children.


Ernest: What fears you had/have, as a mother, of insulating your kids from the negative effects of media and other means of behavioral influences?

Kathryn: I think that a good, solid, loving parental relationship with good boundaries will offset exposure to violent media, family, and society. However, exposure to domestic violence, abuse and neglect MUST be stopped for a child to heal from its effects and be able to live a healthy life with healthy relationship. All the love in the world may not be able to offset life long abuse or exposure to domestic violence. It is very difficult to change life long patterns. So the first step is to stop violence and neglect in families. Some of the children in my extended family who had life long exposure to domestic violence and abuse have not been able to recover, while some have. I think the key to helping these children has been strong, loving family units, stopping the violence in any form, reducing risk factors, increasing resiliency factors, and therapy.

Kathryn Seifert’s website: http://www.drkathyseifert.com/