Gender Differences in Aggression Awareness among Adolescents: A Comparative Psychological Study

Abstract

Although decades of research have documented sex differences in the frequency and form of aggressive behaviour, surprisingly little is known about whether adolescent boys and girls differ in how accurately they can identify, label, and predict the consequences of aggression in everyday social situations. The present study investigated gender differences in aggression awareness among 1,284 adolescents (Mage = 14.7 years, SD = 1.3; 51 % female) from four public middle and high schools in the Midwestern United States. Using a mixed-methods design, participants completed (a) a validated video vignette task that measured accuracy in detecting physical, relational, and cyber aggression; (b) self-report questionnaires on hostile attribution bias and empathy; and (c) focus-group interviews (n = 96) exploring subjective definitions and perceived seriousness of aggression. Results revealed small but significant gender effects: girls outperformed boys in identifying relational aggression (Cohen’s d = .22) and cyber aggression (d = .19), whereas boys were marginally more accurate at detecting physical aggression (d = .10). Mediation analyses indicated that the female advantage in relational awareness was partially mediated by higher empathy (indirect effect = 0.07, 95 % CI [0.03, 0.11]), whereas boys’ hostile attribution bias suppressed their relational accuracy (indirect effect = –0.05, 95 % CI [–0.09, –0.02]). Qualitative themes corroborated quantitative findings; girls emphasized “social exclusion” and “humiliation,” whereas boys privileged “physical harm” and “dominance.” Implications for gender-sensitive violence-prevention programs are discussed.