SelfhelpMagazine

by Nicki R. Crick, Ph.D. & Maureen A. Bigbee, M.S./M.S.W.

Parents have known for centuries that children can be cruel, but it is only recently that research has looked at how girls and boys demonstrate cruelty to their friends in gender-specific ways.

Mean Girls

Mean girls do exist. There is research that illustrates girls experience peer victimization, usually relational aggression, in which a person is harmed through hurtful manipulation of peer relationships or friendships. Examples of relational aggression include retaliating against a peer by purposefully excluding her from one's social group or badmouthing her to her peers.

Girls who are relationally victimized are rejected by their peers, feel lonely, experience social anxiety, are socially distressed, and are significantly more submissive than their peers. They can suffer emotional pain that persists into adulthood and suffer a lack of permenent lack of self esteem.

Researchers Nicki R. Crick, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, and Maureen A. Bigbee, M.S./M.S.W., of Ramsey Elementary School examined 383 fourth and fifth graders' self-reports of victimization and assessed peer perception of children's positive and negative treatment by classmates.

The authors found that girls were significantly more relationally victimized, while boys were significantly more overtly victimized (overt aggression harms others through physical damage or the threat of such damage).

Research Summary

This research summary concludes that victims of interpersonal aggression between children in 4rth and 5th grade led to significant adjustment problems. In all victimized children, relatively high levels of emotional distress and loneliness were reported. Victims of interpersonal aggression also report having more problems controlling themslevs, such as more difficulty inhibiting anger and greater impulsivity.

Most research in this general area focusses on overt aggression, overt victimization, or relational aggression. This particular study shows the value of studying how children, particularly girls, can be seriously traumatized by hurtful manipulation of their peer relationships or friendships. "These insights demonstrate the value of studying relational victimization in order to increase our knowledge of social contributors to children's mental health problems, particularly for girls," says Dr. Crick, lead author of the study.

The researchers suggest that those who work with children, including teachers and clinicians, must pay attention to victims not only of physically aggressive attacks, but also to those who are victimized by relational slights, for both types of victims may be at risk for adjustment difficulties.

Reference:

"Relational and Overt Forms of Peer Victimization: A Multiinformant Approach," by Nicki R. Crick, Ph.D., University of Minnesota and Maureen A. Bigbee, M.S./M.S.W., Ramsey Elementary School, in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 66, No. 2.

This information received from the American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC.