Organización y estabilidad del Comportamiento coercitivo en niños Escolares: una perspectiva de Desarrollo

Abstract

Developmental perspective postulates that behavior organization is the result of the reciprocal and dynamic interaction with their social ecology, emphasizing situational factors which affect subsequent behavior. This paper examines the effect of behavioral, cognitive and group factors on behavioral patterns of coercive on-risk children. Ten elementary school on-risk children and ten matched controls from third grade were followed for two years with a multi-method strategy. Data analysis indicates that on-risk children differ from matched children in behavioral and cognitive aspects, and in their social networks. Some on-risk children are central in the social network, and teachers perceive them as more conflictive than matched children. For on-risk children, provocations are facilitating stimulus of coercive episodes, whereas for matched children these events were inhibitory stimulus. For on-risk children, school interaction may consolidate patterns of coercive behavior. Teachers’ perception, coercive and punitive environment and social relations with peers are central in the consolidation of differential patterns.