Aggression, Antisocial Behavior, and Violence among Girls: A Developmental Perspective (The Duke Series in Child Develpment and Public Policy) [Hardcover]

Martha Putallaz PhD (Editor), Karen L. Bierman Phd (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1572309946 | ISBN-13: 978-1572309944 | Edition: 1

From leading authorities, this book traces the development of female aggression and violence from early childhood through adulthood. Cutting-edge theoretical perspectives are interwoven with longitudinal data that elucidate the trajectories of aggressive girls' relationships with peers, with later romantic partners, and with their own children. Key issues addressed include the predictors of social and physical aggression at different points in the lifespan, connections between being a victim and a perpetrator, and the interplay of biological and sociocultural processes in shaping aggression in girls. Concluding commentaries address intervention, prevention, juvenile justice, and related research and policy initiatives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is an essential reference for any behavioral scientist interested in sex differences. The topics addressed are hugely provocative, from the first question--'Why do groups of little boys and girls socially construct different subcultures for themselves?'--to the last--'What should policy makers do, now that they've discovered girls' aggression?' I wrote a book on this subject myself only 3 years ago, but this one is so full of new information that I learned a lot from it."--Terrie E. Moffitt, PhD, Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, UK

"You can't solve a problem if you don't know one exists. This book brings girls' aggression out of the shadows and into the limelight, and offers solutions to guide prevention, intervention, and public policy decisions. Scholars and students in a wide range of disciplines--developmental and clinical psychology, social work, education, sociology, and criminology--should read this book."--Ross D. Parke, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside

"I found this volume essential reading. It provides key new knowledge on the development, biological and social causes, and consequences of girls’ aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence. Chapters by top-ranking experts with years of experience in the field, a number of whom base their results on longitudinal studies, make this volume highly informative for scholars, graduate students, and practitioners. I particularly liked the thoughtful consideration of directions and priorities for intervening to improve the lives of girls in current and future generations."--Rolf Loeber, PhD, Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh

About the Author

Martha Putallaz, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Duke University, where she joined the faculty in 1983. Dr. Putallaz is a long-standing researcher in the field of children's social development and peer relationships. Most recently, she has been Principal Investigator of a comprehensive study of aggression and social rejection among middle childhood girls, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. She is also a codirector of the Carolina Consortium on Human Development and the executive director of Duke's Talent Identification Program.

Karen L. Bierman, PhD, is Director of the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium and Distinguished Professor of Clinical Child Psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Her research has focused on understanding how peer relationships contribute to children's social-emotional development, social competence, and school adjustment. Currently, she is the director of the Pennsylvania site of the Fast Track project, a national, multisite prevention trial funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, with additional funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the U.S. Department of Education. She is also coinvestigator of the newly funded PROSPER program, supported by NIDA, which involves the diffusion of empirically supported prevention programs to schools through the use of cooperative-extension-facilitated university-community partnerships.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 322 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572309946
• ISBN-13: 978-1572309944
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,339,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Supporting Evidence for Mutually Violent Codependence, October 20, 2008

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This review is from: Aggression, Antisocial Behavior, and Violence among Girls: A Developmental Perspective (The Duke Series in Child Develpment and Public Policy) (Hardcover)

Lordy. Considering the heat generated by the topics discussed in this book over the past decades, and the research negating the feminist positions about those topics, I'm surprised to be the first reviewer.

Putallaz and Bierman take their sweet time getting around to providing the payoff, but provide they do after constructing a relatively solid case for 200 odd pages. The Big Conclusion comes as no surprise to anyone who's conducted court-mandated anger-management course for accused spouse abusers: pick a poorly raised (or worse, incested or molested) female and figure on some version of life in hell. Of course, the fact that most of the men who will select such a woman are likely to have missed out on "good enough parenting" comes as little surprise, either.

A,AB,aVaG is no polemic one way or the other; much as van der Kolk and his gang constructed Traumatic Stress (1996) and Millon and his put together Psychopathy (1998), it's a collection of published, polished, -professional- material on the topics, along with healthy portions of empirical research. If you're given to a "just the facts, mam" approach, it's tough to come away from here with much other than agreement that it takes two to tango in the world of violent codependence or raucus romance addiction.

Readers may gain a better sense of direction for treatment in Beck's Prisoners of Hate (1999) and Ellis's Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (2001), Wessler et al's Succeeding with Difficult Clients: Applications of Cognitive Appraisal Therapy (2001), and even Evans's The Verbally Abusive Relationship, Expanded Second Edition (1996), but the supporting evidence for the more violent verions of the Karpman Drama Triangle is all here.