Treating Child and Adolescent Aggression Through Bibliotherapy
Antisocial acts by children and teens are on the rise – from verbal abuse to physical bullying to cyber-threats to weapons in schools. Strictly punitive responses to aggressive behavior may even escalate a situation, leaving peers, parents, and teachers f
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Zipora Shechtman
Treating Child and Adolescent Aggression Through Bibliotherapy
13
Zipora Shechtman University of Haifa Mount Carmel Israel
ISSN: 1572-5642 ISBN: 978-0-387-09743-5 DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-09745-9
e-ISBN: 978-0-387-09745-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008938332 # Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC 2009 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com
To my dear family The source of my energy and support With love To the many students who applied the method of bibliotherapy The source of the case studies and illustrations With appreciation
Preface
Aggression among children and adolescents is a highly disturbing behavior, whether it takes place at home, in the school, on the playground, or in the community. Attempts have been made to prevent aggression through disciplinary action (‘‘Zero Tolerance’’ approach) and social enhancement (‘‘Well-Being’’ approach), but while they often do result in decreased aggression, they don’t work for everyone. Owing to various individual differences (temperament, family circumstances, developmental difficulties, etc.), some children remain aggressive despite those efforts. Classroom and school-based educational programs to reduce aggression are often of a primary prevention type, targeted toward the normative population in the school. But the children and adolescents who are at high risk for aggressive behavior need a secondary prevention treatment, one that addresses the unique difficulties of aggressive young people. Take, for example, the recent shooting at Virginia Technical University, in which a college student killed 32 peers and professors and then committed suicide. This was an act of one very angry and lonely young man, as were other mass shootings in schools in the United States. It is this anger, loneliness, and sense of rejection that need to be addressed in the treatment of these children, starting at an early age. Ignoring the needs of the aggressor is typical of our society. Paradoxically, the more prevention attempts are made the more difficult becomes the situation for such children and youth. Prevention programs enhance awareness of the norms, rules and regulations expected in a certain setting, and any deviation from them arouses antagonism and anger. Because aggress
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