@article{ref1,
title="Massage decreases aggression in preschool children: a long-term study",
journal="Acta paediatrica",
year="2008",
author="von Knorring, Anne-Liis and Söderberg, Anna and Austin, Lena and Uvnäs-Moberg, Kerstin",
volume="97",
number="9",
pages="1265-1269",
abstract="AIM: To evaluate the effects of massage in 4- to 5-year-old children with aggression and deviant behaviour at day-care centres. METHOD: The children received daily massage in preschool at the midday rest (n = 60). The controls were listening to a story (n = 50). The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) was used to rate the children's behaviour by parents and staff before the treatment started, and after 3 and 6 months. A long-term evaluation was also carried out. It included all massaged children still in daycare after 12 months (n = 34). RESULTS: Children with high scores of behaviour problems, receiving massage and/or extra attention showed significant decrease in aggression scores after 3 months, but after 6 months significantly lowered scores were only found in massage-treated deviant children. Parents of the children receiving massage rated a significant decrease of somatic problems of their children. Staff rated that the massaged children's social problems decreased, compared to the control children. Attention problems tended to decrease, especially at home. A continuous decrease in aggressive behaviour and somatic problems over a 12-month period was observed in the children receiving massage. CONCLUSION: Daily touching by massage lasting for 5-10 min could be an easy and inexpensive way to decrease aggression among preschool children.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0803-5253",
doi="10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00919.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00919.x"
}