So, does your child ever throw tantrums?  Yes?  Well, the good news is that you’re not alone.  And this isn’t something us Western parents have brought upon ourselves with our strange parenting ways; they’re actually fairly common (although not universal) in other cultures as well.

 

What causes a tantrum?  And what can parents do to both prevent tantrums from occurring and cope with them more effectively once they start?  Join us today to learn more.

 

Taming Your Triggers

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Sign up for the waitlist and we'll let you know once enrollment re-opens. Click the image below to learn more.

 

00:35 Introduction in today’s episode

01:00 The 1st, last and only detailed research about this subject was published in 1931 then the research went quiet until the 1980’s even since then there’s only little information about this subject because tantrums can be hard to study at home

01:56 Age bracket of children that have tantrums and this is the most common childhood behavior according to parents

02:30 Tantrums may occur in other cultures according to Robert and Sarah LeVine’s recent book Do Parents Matter?

03:12 David Lancy’s book The Anthropology of Childhood cites several studies of other cultures that mention tantrum-like behavior.

04:55 Florence Goodenough wrote a book that was published in 1939 that described tantrums implied that this is not a new phenomenon

06:30 Children who have older siblings have more frequent outbursts than first-born children

09:29 Goodenough asked parents at the beginning of the study what methods of controlling tantrums

12:15 Negotiation is considered to be a valued ability because it can bring about solutions to problems that come as close as possible to satisfying everyone

13:45 The studies found that maternal use of induction techniques was related to social competence, even across time, during the preschool period

14:58 Wrapping up the discussion

 

Denham, S.A., & Burton, R. (2003). Social and emotional prevention and intervention programming for preschoolers. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers

Green, J.A., Whitney, P.G., & Potegal, M. (2011). Screaming, yelling, whining, and crying: Categorical and intensity differences in vocal expressions of anger and sadness in children’s tantrums. Emotion 11(5), 1124-1133. DOI: 10.1037/a0024173

Goodenough, F. (1931). Anger in young children. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Lancy, D.F. (2015). The anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Levine, L.J. (1995). Young children’s understanding of the causes of anger and sadness. Child Development 66(2), 697-709.

LeVine, R., & LeVine, S. (2016). Do parents matter? Why Japanese babies sleep soundly, Mexican siblings don’t fight, and American families should just relax. New York: Public Affairs.

Lieberman, M.D., Eisenberger, N.E., Crockett, M.J., Tom, S.M., Pfeifer, J.H., & Way, B.M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science 18(5), 421-428.