Sex Differences in Children's Verbal Aggression.

Abstract

Developmental patterns of sex differences in verbal aggression in children were determined by an event-sampling procedure in Study 1 that recorded the free speech of 32 nursery school children. Content analysis revealed that for children of both sexes verbal aggression was significantly more common than, and signifi cantly correlated with, physical aggression, but no sex differences in verbal ag gression were found. In Study 2, a cross-sectional design was used to sample the free speech of first, third, fifth, and seventh grade children. An ANOVA of the raw frequencies of verbal aggression showed that only fifth grade boys produced significantly more aggressive comments than girls. However, percentages showed significant age and sex main effects. Overall, boys were proportionately more aggressive than girls, and older more so than younger. There was a signifi cant increase with age in the proportion of verbal aggression that was hostile rather than instrumental.