14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists have determined in a new study that adolescent girls are the worst hit when they lose friendships. People in general have a hard time moving past such a loss, but the research suggests that young girls may be especially vulnerable to this type of hurt.
Young boys are also heavily affected, more so than adults or children, but less so then girls of comparable ages. The discovery puts a dent in past theories arguing that girls are better than boys at navigating the emotional intricacies a friendship implies.
The investigation was led by investigators at the Boston College and the Duke University, both in the United States. The main goal of the research was to determine whether girls are better than boys at coping with the stress of having a friend violate core expectations their relationships involved.
In the study, the team looked at how both genders handled troubles such as friends canceling plans, sharing their secrets with others, or not being there when the situation required it. Primarily, the research group focused on children in the fourth and fifth grades, PsychCentral reports.
The primary conclusion was that girls tended to be significantly more upset, angry and sad in response to the aforementioned behaviors than boys were. “Our findings stand in contrast to previous research that has shown boys to experience more anger than girls in their relationships,” Julie Paquette MacEvoy explains.
The researcher was the lead author of the new investigation, details of which were published in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Child Development. “Here, we found that girls are in fact just as capable as boys are of anger,” Paquette MacEvoy adds.
A total of 267 boys and girls were monitored for this study, and researchers learned that the motives driving each gender in reacting the way it does are very different. For instance, girls are extremely likely to interpret friendship indiscretions in a negative way, which further leads to other downsides.
“What leads boys and girls to feel angry, though, seems to be different. For girls, the anger comes out when they think that their friends have betrayed them or haven’t been there for them,” the team leader goes on to say.
Interestingly, the group also determined that girls are just as likely as boys to respond aggressively to perceived betrayals. In the past, experts thought girls were more passive in their response, but the research team found that not to be case.
“It seems that when girls feel that something that matters to them is in jeopardy, like their friendships, they are just as likely as boys to want to retaliate and to respond with aggression,” MacEvoy believes.