Anger Management in Children: 5 Ways that Can Limit Aggressive Behavior

November 4, 2025

Recently, a news article with the title ‘AGE OF RAGE’ covered an alarming incident of violence in Kerala, where a class X student was charged with murder.

And this is not the ONLY CASE!

Most stakeholders are trying to understand how angry our young generation is.

And what are the ways to manage their anger issues?

If you too, wish to find your answers, join us as we discover all aspects of this grave issue.

Read on.

What is Anger?

In the simplest terms, anger is a feeling, often very strong, that stems from an unpleasant happening/incident/experience, etc. It is a human emotion that can lead to sharp reactions. And in most cases, it is intense and uncomfortable as well.

After this definition, let’s understand why anger management is important in the first place.

Why is Anger Management Important?

Anger is often related to underlying mental health conditions. In fact, unmanaged anger is also related to serious mental health issues like anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, etc.

Unfortunately, anger, negative emotions, and mental health issues are on the rise among Indian students.

Let’s give you some numbers before we proceed with the anger management techniques.

Some Statistics

A sample survey in India (Chennai school students) highlighted almost 48% of students battling with depression, and 36% with stress. While 7.10% of students reported extreme stress due to academics.

Going by gender, boys reported higher levels of stress (45.5%) with girls doing better (26.71%).

Mental Health issues in Indian children from a sample survey | Anger Management in Children

Let’s understand the reasons why children get angry.

Expert Opinion – Why Do Children Have Anger Issues?

Unmet Needs

Contrary to the popular beliefs that children are attention seeking and deliberately annoying, anger can be to show discontentment due to unmet needs. So, if your child/student gets angry very often, it’s time to check these needs.

Lack of Autonomy

Children also get angry when they have lots of things to say, but they do not find the right words, and expressions to share their thoughts. At times, children can also feel a lack of power that once again makes them experience negative emotions that they hardly recognize. This helplessness and inability to handle things on their own eventually comes out in the form of sharp reactions that we label as anger.

After these reasons, let’s get started with the ways to manage anger in a child.

5 Ways to Limit Aggressive Behavior in Your Child

1. Teach Good Behavior When the Child Is Calm

Setting expectations and boundaries is important, but timing is important too.

The ideal way to handle a situation when the child is angry is to wait till he/she is calm.

So, start by working on yourself and learn to be patient to avoid reacting when the child is not in the best of mood. Impulsiveness worsens situations like these. Give it a pause and choose to respond at the right time without any useless reactions during an outburst.

2. Educate the Child About Emotions

Embracing what we go through and understanding emotions helps in managing anger. Teach your child about different emotions and why we feel in a certain way while experiencing these. This will help the child deal with difficult emotions. And he/she will also be able to communicate the exact feeling before anger takes over.

3. Build Relevant Skills

We all know that-

Empathetic individuals understand people around them better.

Active listening reduces the chances of ambiguity in a conversation.

Self-awareness tells us about our triggers, strengths, and weaknesses.

Similarly, collaboration makes us more accepting of others and also helps us understand group dynamics better.

Build these skills in the child, as these will contribute to positive results with anger management. And like all other things, THE SOONER THE BETTER!

4. Empower the Child

Confidence helps us to express our needs, and to set boundaries when necessary. Empower your child with some confidence building role plays, yoga poses (like Superman), etc. And more importantly, teach them how to claim their rights in a setting without sounding loud or aggressive.

5. Channelize Their Energy

Anger and reasons causing it can be opportunities to solve problems and identify underlying issues.

Use these opportunities when the child is angry.

Teach the child to break down a problem into parts. Look for the key points, and analyze solutions constructively without giving in to strong negative emotions like anger.

Reinforce good attempts in this direction. And help the child work on the actual root cause of a problem to avoid the reoccurrence of an outburst.

Some Anger Tips

Tried and tested tips help with anger management too.

Try some ways like these to manage your child’s anger:

Use calming strategies with affirmations like repeating ‘I know how to calm down’, ‘I am powerful enough to overcome my anger’, etc.
Count from one to 10.
Move to a different location.
Hold hands with the child and do deep breathing.
Stay consistent with responses and actions to set the right example.
Channelize energy with a simple workout or exercise during an outburst.
Distract the child with some funny jokes, videos, or reels for instant relief.
Give a stress ball or a fidget cube to help the child with healthy ways of managing anger.

How to Work on Long-Term Solutions?

Explaining consequences and reasoning work wonders. Speak to your child in a calm tone about the importance of choosing words, reactions, actions, behavior, etc., as these are directly related to consequences that can hold greater importance in the future. Once again, wait for this important step till the time the child is calm.

We hope these techniques and anger management ways helped you find your light in the darkness.

Thanks for Reading!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the reasons why children have anger issues?
Children can have anger issues due to unmet needs. Besides, they can also get angry when they feel incapable of expressing and managing negative emotions.
What are the best ways that can help a child manage his/her anger?
Help with time out, explain consequences, stay consistent, use positive affirmations, reinforce good behavior, try breathing exercises, and look for the root cause of issues to help the child manage his/her anger.