Violent and Nonviolent Children's and Parents' Reasoning about Family and Peer Violence

Abstract

This inquiry examined the moral reasoning patterns of violent children with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) and their aggressive parents. All 35 children had committed lethal or potentially lethal violent acts before age 10 and attended a highly restrictive day treatment center. The matched control group (n = 34) was drawn from a nonclinical population. Participants were presented with six family and peer violence scenarios followed by a structured interview. The results suggested that each group used moral reasoning when discussing the scenarios, but that the groups focused on different moral transgressions. Specifically, the violent children and their parents referred more to rules prohibiting provocation (rather than rules prohibiting physical retribution). We recommend future studies that explore how violent children interpret psychological provocation in the context of potential physical retribution.