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Preteen girls more likely than boys to
retaliate
Girls in middle and elementary schools involved in violent incidents may
be more likely than boys of the same age to be retaliating for a
previous event, to experience the violence at home, and to have a family
member intervene. Researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
surveyed 190 children aged 8 to 14 brought to the hospital's emergency
department for injuries caused by interpersonal violence.
The study appeared in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatric and
Adolescent Medicine. “Although interpersonal violence is not uncommon
among pre-adolescent and young adolescent girls, little research has
focused specifically on females,” said Cynthia J. Mollen, M.D., an
emergency medicine physician at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,
and first author of the study. “If health care providers know more about
specific patterns of violence, they may be able to better prevent future
incidents.” In the study, research assistants interviewed a sample of
patients presenting to the hospital's emergency department during a
one-year period.
The researchers used a survey they had previously developed in focus
group sessions with urban youth at a local community center. Injuries
that were unintentional, self-inflicted or caused by child abuse were
not included in the study, and the researchers chose children aged 14
and younger, to exclude most cases of dating violence.
After obtaining consent from the patients
and parents, the researchers usually interviewed the children without
the parent being present. Of the 190 patients studied, 58 (31 percent)
were female and 132 (69 percent) were male. Seventy-eight, or 40
percent, of the patients were less than 12 years old, and still in
elementary school. The vast majority of the injuries (88 percent) were
classified as minor; of the 22 remaining injuries, including concussions
and fractures, only one occurred in a female. For most of their
analyses, the researchers compared violent events involving at least one
girl (74 events) to those involving only boys (116 events).
The patients classified 67 percent of the events as fights and 30
percent of the incidents as assaults, in which the patient did not
respond physically to the attack. For both genders, the most common
reason for a fight was “being disrespected” or “teasing,” but in
contrast to male-only incidents, female- involved events were more
commonly a recurrence of a previous fight. The most common site of the
violent event was school, but incidents involving females were more
likely than all-male incidents to occur at home. Furthermore, among
females, a family member was more likely to intervene to stop the
violence.
Weapons were more often present in events
involving at least one female, and females were more likely than males
to be injured by a weapon, especially blunt objects such as sticks or
rocks. Weapons could be unlikely objects, including clothes hangers and
rollerblades. Only five of the 190 patients had firearm injuries. “While
much further research remains to be done on interpersonal violence
involving children, this study provides information for parents and
caregivers,” said Dr. Mollen. “For instance, because ‘disrespect‘
appears so prominently as a trigger for violence, children and parents
could benefit by learning techniques for responding to perceived insults
in a nonviolent manner.
We know from previous research that a parent's attitude about
appropriate triggers for violence has an effect on children's behavior.
“In addition,” she added, “because girls were more likely to offer
retaliation as a reason for violence, healthcare providers could screen
injured girls about their safety concerns and their plans for
retaliation. Understanding gender differences in violent behavior could
help us in designing school-based and community intervention programs
for children in this age group.”
The researchers identified the patients
in the study through the Violence Intervention Project, an ongoing
health surveillance program at Children's Hospital and the Hospital of
the University of Pennsylvania that refers violently injured youth to
appropriate community organizations. Co-authors of the study with Dr.
Mollen were emergency medicine physicians Joel A. Fein, M.D. and Dennis
R. Durbin, M.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and A.
Russell Localio, J.D., M.P.H., of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology
and Biostatistics of the University of Pennsylvania. The American
Academy of Pediatrics and the William Penn Foundation supported the
study through the Ken Graff Young Investigator Award.
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