The Impact of Anger on Young Children

It would be nice to believe that nothing much happens to young children who grow up around violent or angry parents and caregivers. It would be so nice to believe that they could simply brush off their experiences and keep an unblemished faith in life and in themselves. But the more psychologists have studied children, the more they've realised something extremely daunting – that we are all, in fact, hugely susceptible to the moods of the people around us. Expose people to violent tempers early on, and the scars can last a lifetime. At the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, psychologist Professor Betty Repaccioli and her team have carried out a riveting experiment to show what can happen to a sensitive child – that is, to every child – who comes in the vicinity of a raised angry voice. Watch how this 15-month-old boy responds. In a safe environment, a child is free to explore joyfully. But when there is some kind of danger – represented here by a so-called emoter – curiosity quickly gives way to fear. This 15-month-old was lucky. He was sitting on the lap of a loving mother, and was quickly comforted. But many of us are less fortunate. And it's life itself, rather than just a pink set of beads, that we have, as a consequence, grown too frightened to explore. We should show ourselves immense compassion, and strive with all our intelligence to create a world in which there might, henceforth, be a lot less rage, and fewer cowed, traumatised children.