Sometimes, the causes of misbehaviour are easy to see; other times, they are hidden. The reasons may include:

1. Impulsiveness and inexperience - A lot of misbehaviour happens because the child does not know any better. For example, the eight-year old with the snowball was excited and having fun (impulsive) and may be too young to understand that even the simplest actions can be dangerous when done carelessly (inexperience).

2. Resentment and anger at rules - Nobody likes being told what to do, and that includes children. Yet, children get told what to do and how to do it all the time! So, it is not surprising that they misbehave out of resentment or anger. For example, your three-year old may hit a playmate after you insist that toys be shared, or your teenager may yell, swear and slam doors after being told repeatedly to clean up his/her room.

3. Resentment and anger at unfair treatment -Sometimes, we take out our own anger and frustrations on our children. We may yell at our children for being noisy when the real reason is we are angry about something that happened at work. We all do this kind of thing occasionally, but if we do it all the time, our children will respond with resentful and angry behaviour of their own.

4. Frustration from too much pressure to perform -Sometimes we push our children to achieve too much too soon. If a child is always being pressured to do things, like stand up on skates before he/she is physically ready or play games that are too difficult for his/her age, he/she may refuse to learn new things at home or slack off at school.
fears: real or imaginary - If your child suddenly refuses to do things that he/she used to do, it may be because of a real or imagined fear. For example, your child may suddenly refuse to get on the school bus because he/she has been frightened by a larger, hostile child who has started taking the same bus (real), or it may be a case of resisting going to bed because "there's a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the closet!" (imaginary)
      You can find more information from http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?cid=2-29-66