A recent study suggests that children frequently behave badly for absolutely no reason. This contradicts previous research, according to which children behave in such a manner solely when they are frustrated, angry or incapable of communicating their desires. Thus, when a child bites his classmate or hits his sibling or babysitter, the frequent reason this takes place is simply because they find it entertaining. The study was published by Audun Dahl, a child development researcher working at the University of Santa Cruz. Dahl examined about 25 children in their own homes on three separate occasions. First, when the child was 14 months old, then 19 months old, then 2 years old, for two and a half hours at a tie.
She concluded that about half of the time a child deliberately harmed someone, this behavior was completely unprovoked. Victims of the children were typically parents, siblings or pets. Unprovoked attacks took place approximately 43 percent of the time. Frequently, the reason for the bad behavior appeared to be an accident. Of course, sometimes the children were simply annoyed by the victim. Indeed, this is consistent with previous research which suggests that toddlers typically show signs of pleasure when they upset others, according to mothers. Indeed, while it may all too often be the case that mothers uncritically worship their children, they are nonetheless quite frank about the fact that their kids frequently enjoy misbehaving at the expense of others, rather than framing excuses for them. Fortunately, children do not always stay this way. This behavior peaks at approximately 18 months, and wanes in frequency about about two years old.
