Question

How might children/ adults be taught to manage their frustration in ways other than lashing out violently (and often fatally) at their peers?

Answer 1

Mostly children are prone to violent outbursts lashing out angrily at their peers. The child or an adult percieves the stressors differently as a result their ways of managing their frustration also differs depending on their personality make up and coping strategies but a child or an adult should be taught about the adverse effects of frustration on their mental and physical well being. Some of the following ways to teach children to manage their anger outbursts are:

1. Relaxation- simple relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, imagery relaxation, calming down, etc can help a person to reduce their anger. Practicing relaxation techniques on a regular basis helps one to improve their coping skills of anger management.

2. Humour- Using humor can help one to defuse the feelings of rage and frustration. In an angry state the child should be taught to imagine or picturise the word used for the target person. This imagination will definitely create a balance in an angry state.

3. Better communication- Child or an adult should be taught to slow down while speaking in anger and think before responding to the other person. In this way the frustrated person will think before speaking and also will listen to other's person perspective which will eventually control the situation.

4. Problem solving- children or adult since beginning should be taught problem focused coping style to deal with any situation rather than emotion focused. Emotion focused strategy hinders the ability of a person to think analytically and evaluate the situation accurately thus resulting into bursting of emotions.

In these way a child or an adult may be able to manage their frustration in balancing manner without causing a harm to others.