“I know they are manipulating me…” Unmasking indirect aggression in an adolescent girls’ friendship group.
Huntley and Owens 2006 International Education Journal
“Research has shown the damaging and extremely hurtful consequences of indirect aggression, leading some girls to consider leaving their school, or even considering suicide as an alternative to the pain they had experienced from indirect aggression (Owens, Slee and Shute, 2000). Very little has been written regarding intervention methods for this specific form of aggression. However, externalising conversations have been shown to be particularly successful in working with adolescents.”
When Friends Disappoint: Boys’ and Girls’ Responses to Transgressions of Friendship Expectations
MacEvoy and Asher 2012 Child Development
“The generalisation that girls are more prosocial and empathic in relationships (see Maccoby, 1998; Rose & Rudolph, 2006) may not apply to situations in which a friend has violated a core expectation of friendship. Indeed, the pattern of gender differences in response to friendship transgressions may help to explain why it is that even though girls exhibit a large number of strengths in their friendships (e.g., shared intimacy, emotional support), girls’ friendships are not found to be more stable than boys’ friendships nor are girls more satisfied than boys with their friendships (see Rose & Asher, 2011). How children respond when a friend disappoints them may be a critical part of the story.”
‘Just be friends’: exposing the limits of educational bully discourses for understanding teen girls’ heterosexualized friendships and conflicts.
Ringrose 2008 British Journal of Sociology in Education
“I [ ] trace some of the effects of bully discourses set in motion in schools to intervene into conflicts among girls. I suggest the practices miss the complexity of the dynamics at play among girls and also neglect the power relations of parenting, ethnicity, class and school choice, which can inform how why and when bullying discourses are mobilized.” “I illustrate how the bully discourses employed by parents and the school miss [ ] aspects of conflicts between girls, and instead escalate conflict and heighten anxiety and defensiveness.” “What is troubling is a school psychology literature is now amassing that takes girls’ indirect and/or relational aggression as a premise for behavioural management and anti-bully policy.” “In concluding, it would seem new conceptual frameworks for approaching girls’ conflict are needed that critically engage with the limitations of the psychological discourses of aggression and bullying, which dominate the policy and research.”
Navigating Power, Control, and Being Nice: Aggression in Adolescent Girls’ Friendships
Crother, Laura M, Field, Julaine E, Kolbert, Jered B. 2005
The use of relational aggression is most likely a symptom of the systemic oppression of women through sexist practices. Within a traditional feminine worldview, the art and practice of assertiveness are often associated with promoting self-interests at the expense of others. Traditional gender role stereotyping has created a narrow range of behavioral options that allow young women to be angry while remaining visibly “nice” in their overt behavior.
Friendship Features and Social Exclusion
An Observational Study Examining Gender and Social Context
Marion K. Underwood and Duane Buhrmester The University of Texas at Dallas
“As compared to boys, in the presence of the provoking peer, girls’ aggressive friendship features were less strongly related to exclusive verbalizations but more strongly related to observed exclusive gestures. In the absence of the provocateur, girls’ aggressive friendship features were more strongly related to exclusive remarks than were boys’ friendship features. These findings suggest that the relation between friendship features and social exclusion may be influenced more by context for girls and that girl friends may dissemble more when excluding a newcomer, perhaps in keeping with their interpersonal needs for communion and harmony.”