{"id":6888,"date":"2015-01-30T06:58:47","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T11:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=6888"},"modified":"2015-01-30T06:57:19","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T11:57:19","slug":"mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html","title":{"rendered":"Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/agree-terms.php?id=10075688\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6901 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2015\/01\/ID-10075688-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"ID-10075688\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" \/><\/a>Perhaps you&#8217;ve seen the movie <em>Mean Girls<\/em>.\u00a0If so, you remember the popular clique of girls who ruled the social scene by backstabbing and being verbally mean to anyone they didn&#8217;t like. The movie\u00a0reminds most of us of those one or two girls in middle school who could use their verbal aggression to put us in our place.<\/p>\n<p>Boys don&#8217;t do this, right? It&#8217;s just the girls who use their verbal skills to talk behind your back. Boys are more physical. They prefer to beat you up physically, not verbally. At least that is how we typically think, but is it true? Are boys less mean?<\/p>\n<p>Research published in <em>Aggressive Behavior<\/em> disputes this notion. Boys, it appears, use<em> both<\/em> their physical and relationship aggression to be mean, more so then girls. Surveys were given to 620 students asking them about their behavior. According to the seven-year long study, physical and relational aggression were\u00a0more common in boys.<\/p>\n<p>As you might guess, sixth to eighth grade proved to be the worse time for these types of aggression. Fortunately, the meanness drops off in high school with the senior year the best.<\/p>\n<p>And did you know that the author of the book, <em>Mean Girls<\/em>, which the movie was based on, also wrote a sequel for boys? Yet, we didn&#8217;t hear much about that topic as a sequel. Based on the study, <em>Mean Boys<\/em> would be a good sequel!<\/p>\n<p>So if you are a parent, teacher or someone who works with teens, keep in mind that boys use rejection, rumors, social exclusion and relationship aggression even more than girls. The stereotype of girls being the means ones, doesn&#8217;t hold. Relationship aggression for both boys and girls is an issue that needs to be addressed. Both genders need to work on being positive with their peers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The paper, published in Aggressive Behavior, is available online at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/AB.21563\/abstract\">http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/AB.21563\/abstract<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you&#8217;ve seen the movie Mean Girls.\u00a0If so, you remember the popular clique of girls who ruled the social scene by backstabbing and being verbally mean to anyone they didn&#8217;t like. The movie\u00a0reminds most of us of those one or two girls in middle school who could use their verbal aggression to put us in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[917],"tags":[1024,3184,1254,3185,51,3186],"class_list":["post-6888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friend-relationships","tag-friendships","tag-mean-girls","tag-peer-relationships","tag-school-days","tag-teens","tag-teens-and-relationships"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps you&#8217;ve seen the movie Mean Girls.\u00a0If so, you remember the popular clique of girls who ruled the social scene by backstabbing and being verbally mean to anyone they didn&#8217;t like. The movie\u00a0reminds most of us of those one or two girls in middle school who could use their verbal aggression to put us in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-30T11:58:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-30T11:57:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/01\/ID-10075688-300x198.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?","og_description":"Perhaps you&#8217;ve seen the movie Mean Girls.\u00a0If so, you remember the popular clique of girls who ruled the social scene by backstabbing and being verbally mean to anyone they didn&#8217;t like. The movie\u00a0reminds most of us of those one or two girls in middle school who could use their verbal aggression to put us in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2015-01-30T11:58:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-30T11:57:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/01\/ID-10075688-300x198.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html","name":"Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/01\/ID-10075688-300x198.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-30T11:58:47+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-30T11:57:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/01\/ID-10075688-300x198.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/01\/ID-10075688-300x198.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/01\/mean-girls-or-is-it-mean-boys.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mean Girls or Is It Mean Boys?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice &amp; Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6888"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6903,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions\/6903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}