The Ophelia Project, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about RA, states that there are no gender effects in RA. Although inspired by Pipher's 1995 book on adolescent girls, the Ophelia Project's website states:
"As our research progressed, we found that there are no gender effects when it comes to relational aggression. Today's boys need our help just as much as today's girls. Our mission evolved over time to encompass both populations, and we are also branching out to explore the issue of covert aggression in the adult workplace.
I am all about Ostrov: observer bias is definitely going to have an effect on how children's interactions are rated. In a real-world setting, it's also going to have an effect on how those interactions are handled by the child. You know when a toddler falls down and you don't make a big deal about it so that the child doesn't get more worked up? There's certainly some of that with social stumbles as well. I spent most of my life overreacting to rejection (real or imagined). I still have trouble with it. Talking with my mother on the phone last week, I found out that she does too, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's not a coincidence.
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I imagine it's sort of the same way with the "boys will be boys" attitude many people have when it comes to physical aggression. If it's less acceptable for girls to hit people, then fewer girls will hit people because we will have socialized them that way.
I've been reading about bullying and such when it comes to parenting, and steps teachers, parents, schools, etc can take to cut down on it -- and also how to handle it when your kid is being bullied. It all comes down to socialization.
I see no reason why there would be any difference with relational aggression vs physical.
@astrogeek01: is that a typo? Fewer boys hitting people, maybe? The first paragraph of your response confuses me.
I do wonder if there's some hormonal component to how people respond to stress - it feels like anger is different since I started testosterone than it was when I didn't have any. Still, I think it would be exceedingly difficult to separate the influences of hormones, socialization, and observer bias for "aggressive" behavior.
I have a lot of trouble with the definition of aggression, anyway. It seems to be aggression is defined by intent, and that rubs my behaviorist leanings the wrong way.
No, I mean that boys hitting people is more "acceptable". Therefore *more* boys will hit people because it's more "ok" for them to be physical, "rough and tumble" -- aka "boys will be boys".
We socialize girls that hitting is not ok, and so therefore fewer girls will hit people.
I'm sure there is hormonal component to any emotion (and therefore stress response), but as you say separating them out is very difficult. I wonder though, if any differences between the sexes are again less than the spread within one sex... hard to say.
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