Meanness in girls can start at three

[Suresh Gupta]

A Brigham Young University study has found that meanness in girls can start when they are still toddlers. The study has found that girls as young as three or four will use manipulation and peer pressure to get what they want.

Craig Hart, study co-author and professor of marriage, family and human development at BYU has said that, " It could range from leaving someone out to telling their friends not to play with someone to saying, 'I'm not going to invite you to my birthday party..... Some kids are really adept at being mean and nasty.

"The "Mean Girls" are highly liked by some and strongly disliked by others. They are socially skilled and popular but can be manipulative and subversive if necessary. They are feared and respected.

The study is the first to link relational aggression and social status in preschoolers.

[abbey]

Originally Posted by Suresh Gupta

A Brigham Young University study has found that meanness in girls can start when they are still toddlers. The study has found that girls as young as three or four will use manipulation and peer pressure to get what they want.

Craig Hart, study co-author and professor of marriage, family and human development at BYU has said that, " It could range from leaving someone out to telling their friends not to play with someone to saying, 'I'm not going to invite you to my birthday party..... Some kids are really adept at being mean and nasty.

"The "Mean Girls" are highly liked by some and strongly disliked by others. They are socially skilled and popular but can be manipulative and subversive if necessary. They are feared and respected.

The study is the first to link relational aggression and social status in preschoolers.

Well i dont agree with you Suresh.
And i'm not going to invite you to my party ( folding my arms & stamping my foot! )

[Suresh Gupta]

But dear Abbey, have you not agreed with the study when you have folded your arms and stamped your foot like a three year old girl.

[abbey]

Originally Posted by Suresh Gupta

But dear Abbey, have you not agreed with the study when you have folded your arms and stamped your foot like a three year old girl.

May have!

[lady cop]

Originally Posted by Suresh Gupta

"The "Mean Girls" are highly liked by some and strongly disliked by others. They are socially skilled and popular but can be manipulative and subversive if necessary. They are feared and respected.

then they grow up and become cops.

[john8pies]

I don`t doubt this happens - but WHY it happens in children so young is surely more worrying -are they simply copying behaviour they see at their home?

[lady cop]

why is it called meaness when a girl is aggressive, and admirable when a man is? my home growing up was "leave it to beaver" all the way, i just happened to have an aggressive personality, nobody abused me. ever. and my parents were loving caring supportive people. no conflict or drama to explain my aggression. i simply had an attitude about bullies and kicked the living tar out of them.

[Peg]

Originally Posted by lady cop

then they grow up and become cops.

[abbey]

Originally Posted by lady cop

why is it called meaness when a girl is aggressive, and admirable when a man is? my home growing up was "leave it to beaver" all the way, i just happened to have an aggressive personality, nobody abused me. ever. and my parents were loving caring supportive people. no conflict or drama to explain my aggression. i simply had an attitude about bullies and kicked the living tar out of them.

I shall remember to keep on the right side of you when you move to Old Blighty!

[koan]

What are the numbers for meanness in boys? My experience with young boys as my daughter has grown up is that they hit, pull chairs out from under people and my daughter has even been called a "bitch" by a boy in grade one after she told him his harassing wasn't going to bug her. I think this is not gender exclusive. It may come out in different ways because we still foster less physical behaviour in girls and laugh/encourage it in boys. "We" being a general term for society. How many times have I heard the phrase "Boys will be boys" followed by a chuckle? Too many to count.

Does that phrase not imply that meanness in boys can start at birth?