Behavior, Control, And Being Nice : Aggression And Adolescent Girls ' Friendships

Most human conflicts can be boiled down to one word: disrespect. Everything starts with a lack of mutual respect and of understanding, be it a playground put-downs, domestic disputes, or even, a war. Andrea Gibson’s A Letter to a Playground Bully From Andrea, Age 8½ is a request for respect and understanding so that a conflict between bully and bullied may end. The letter lays out Andrea’s understanding of her bully with well chosen diction, allowing the bully to relate to Andrea in their shared flaws and flawed families in the hopes that she stops harassing her.

Beginning with Just Girls, Finders first explores sociocultural perspectives, more specifically gender roles and the hierarchy found in schools. Finders cites that there is a shift and change occurring when one enters junior high, “[…] a critical juncture of necessary unlearning and relearning. Adults and adolescents must all renegotiate their roles and relationships- roles and relationships informed not simply by entry into adolescence, but also by how adolescence is situated within multiple cultural, historical, and institutional settings” (13). In support of a shift in

The movie mentioned Mean Girls is a very popular movie and majority of adolescent females have watched or related to this movie. Mean Girls show large amounts of direct and indirect aggression towards other females and is the perfect example of a typical high school social hierarchy for youth. The girls in the movie are constantly fighting over and for the boy’s attention in addition to constantly wanting the sluttiest outfits (Chesney-Lind, Morash & Irwin, 2007, P. 330). A main problem is how society has deemed violent female behaviour as the norm, and acceptable or even the superior position a female has in the social

They have a hard time finding who they are as a person. Adolescence is a period of time where kids are putting into circumstance that are hard to understand until they go through them hardship themselves. In “Saplings in the Storm” girls were analyzed to give better understanding of girl’s emotion when they are going through adolescence. Stated in the article, “In early adolescence, studies show that girls’ IQ scores drop and their resiliency and optimism and become less curious and inclined to take risks. They lose their assertive, energetic and “tomboyish” personalities and come more deferential, self- critical and depressed” (19). Girls try to fit the social stands of being a “girl” and in the end they bring themselves down mentally. Adults don’t understand the social stand because they aren’t completely the same anymore. In today’s society girls have to grow up so fast. Girls start wearing makeup at a young age, start wearing scandalize clothes, and have sexual encounters early. Having to go through all these mild stones may make it hard to be themselves and have

Everybody remembers that one troublemaker they went to elementary school with. Was this kid a boy or girl? Though it may have been a girl, the majority of troublemakers are boys. In a study done in schools in 2011, teachers said, “according to a survey of teachers which found that a fifth thought girls were more likely to cause trouble than boys” (Vasager 1). This is not the case in the children’s book, David Goes to School by David Shannon. Although girls also can cause problems in school, throughout the story David Goes to School, David causes all the trouble in his class while the girls are setting the good example of a student.

Girl vs Girl Her heels are a lethal weapon, 5 inches of sheer judgment. She scours the internet slyly with her brow raised and fingertips ready to spread words of distaste and scrutiny. We are now viewing a “mean girl” in her natural habitat. Studies show that women are biologically more competitive than men when it comes to the attention of a significant other or the role as “alpha” female. We listen to it every day, it is all around us!

Several girls throughout Ness’s book have admitted to defending themselves at the hands of their mothers’ physical beatings. For some girls, gravitating toward physical violence gives them the relief and consolation that they simply cannot seek from home. Violence by girls in impoverished urban neighborhoods, especially street fighting, is commonplace because it is an instrumental function for many girls. Fighting provides a measure of security, a sense of status, and some self-esteem for countless adolescent girls. With the interplay of social and cultural forces, it is no mystery as to why some girls seek solace in street fighting (i.e. strengthening peer ties, a degree of personal aggressiveness, family problems, etc.).

In the article, “The Queen Bee and Her Court” Rosalind Wiseman discusses that teenage girls are under constant peer pressure from their so called friends, and the cliques that they are involved in. These cliques will have both positive and negative connotations in a young girl’s life. “Cliques are sophisticated, complex, and multilayered, and every girl has a role within them.” (Wiseman) Young girls are constantly pulled in different directions such as school work, family, and friends. These influences can shape a young girls life.

An essay by Natalie Adams; Growing up Female analyzes the harshness of the new wave of adolescent girls in school through the four books: Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons, Girl in the Mirror: Mothers and Daughters in the Years of Adolescence by Nancy Snyderman and Peg Streep, Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters by JoAnn Deak with Teresa Barker, and Queen Bees & Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, & Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman. Though the analysis in each of these books she comes to the conclusion that “underneath their nice façade, girls are backbiting, catty, jealous, and duplicitous; they will stop at nothing to get what they want. According to these authors,

Critical thinking note: Davis, K. (2012). Friendship 2.0: Adolescents’ experiences of belonging and self-disclosure online. Journal of Adolescence, 35(6), 1527–1536.

It is time to consider the behavior of the youth well before they consider attending college and or joining the workforce. Firstly, Rita K. Noonan and Dyanna Charles’ article, “Developing Teen Dating Violence and Prevention Strategies,” focuses on discussions with 12 focus groups. Each group is composed of six teens in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, who were asked questions to find themes related to IPV. Findings show that most of the children consider IPV as an issue that they should prevent, but the thought of intervening is often dissuaded by the hypothetical expectation that they will be hurt by the violent perpetrator (Noonan and Charles). This expectation coincides with previous reasons bystanders propose to not speak up (Cohen). Next, expectations for gender roles were discussed, but such expectations could be considered damaging for future relationships. For example, according to the study’s male participants, boyfriends are considered to be “sissies” or “suckers” if they treat their girlfriends well. To the boys, it is a sign of the girlfriend “taking advantage of” and weakening him as a man. This is not just spoken by boys who could be friends. The study clearly says that no participant attends the same school, and this shows a mentality across a wide range of schools. Lastly, the middle schoolers are asked to provide “trusted and credible sources of information” when they seek advice on relationship problems. Often, the children would consider friends or older siblings, but asking adults for help is a “mixed” response among the participants. (Noonan and Charles) The main concern to be addressed regarding these sources is that the participants seem to feel more comfortable with peers rather than adults who are accused of breaking confidentiality. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on

Chad, Amy and Marc explain in their paper the facts of how Boys and Girls deal with their anger and stress in regard of fighting and self-harm. The authors explain that “young men engage in externalized deviance, such as fighting, while young women engage in internalized deviance that results in self-injury”. The authors also state the facts behind boys fighting and women causing self-harm, where it is gendered on only boy fighting while girls are the ones who cut themselves.

For century’s we have heard the term mean girls, and for most of us we have crossed paths with these types of girls in some form or fashion. Unfortunately the phrase mean girls “Bullies” has dramatically changed from the most popular girls on campus the girls determine whether your liked or an out cast, has transformed into violent relentless take no prisoner’s type of evil. Girls have new advanced methods of getting at their prey 24/7 via text messaging, Facebook, twitters which all can be accomplished on their cell phones, you know those devices we give are children so that if they have an emergency or if we need to get ahold of them we can. Because of these technologies we have made it easy for these girls to claim their doing no wrong, often they use others girls to inflict their pain also their violence does not include physical infliction. Undeniably this fact is not true. And sadly teachers, school official’s including the bully’s parents have the same nonchalant thought process, claiming this is normal behavior “girls will be girls” they will grow out of it and the one who is being tormented needs to toughen up, but surely if the shoe where on the other foot parents would be saying the complete opposite. Because the intimidators have an overwhelmingly high popularity among other students because of great beauty, strong status in athletic ability and often a result of fear of

The nature of girls’ relationships involves intimate conversations between friends and, as a result, girls are more invested in their social status and friendships compared to boys (Berndt, 1982). Their choice to use relational aggression to impose social norms more often than physical aggression can be credited to the desire for adolescents to “damage what the same-gender peer group most values” (Paquette & Underwood, 1999, p. 244). Girls view relational aggression as wounding because it harms the intimate relationships they value. Because of the high levels of intimacy in their relationships, relational aggression enables them to gain control over their friends (Grotpeter & Crick, 1996). As a reaction, individuals who have been victims of relational aggression reported experiencing feelings of unhappiness as well as lowered self-perceptions of athletic capability, physical appearance, romantic appeal, close friendships, and general self-worth.

Relational aggression (RA) is defined as nonphysical behaviors that aim to deliberately cause harm to another individual by destroying relationships, harming social status or self-esteem, or public embarrassment (Crick, Werner, Casas, O’Brien, Nelson, Grotpeter, & Markon, 1999). Examples include behaviors such as purposely ignoring a peer, spreading rumors, creating undesirable gossip, and excluding a peer from group activities, (Crick, 1996; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Crick, Ostrov, & Werner, 2006). RA can occur as early as preschool years, and plays a huge role in the interactions among this population with behaviors such as covering one’s ears as a sign of ignoring another peer (Bonica, Arnold, Fisher, Zeljo, & Yershova, 2003; Crick et al.,