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ERIC Number: EJ912598
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Jan
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1532-8759
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"It's Murder Out Today": Middle School Girls Speak Out about Girl Fighting
Letendre, Joan; Smith, Ellen
Children & Schools, v33 n1 p47-57 Jan 2011
Girl fighting and its relational context is a problem that is receiving extensive attention in popular and academic circles. This article reports on a project that gathered the opinions from focus groups of seventh- and eighth-grade girls, organized to understand the perspectives of young adolescent girls in middle school on girl fighting. Both individual and contextual themes arose in the findings: the impact of the middle school structure, which differed from the more protected elementary school; the social structure that defined how girls interacted; the loyalty expressed toward members of the peer group and the betrayal felt when the bonds were not respected; the sensitivity that all girls felt toward racial stereotyping and teasing behaviors; the impact of teasing and the emotional reactivity that girls experienced when they felt hurt or betrayed; the differences in coping between seventh-grade and eighth-grade girls; and the school factors that supported or challenged girls' coping. Recommendations for universal schoolwide interventions as well as interventions targeted more specifically toward girls in distress are provided.
National Association of Social Workers (NASW). 750 First Street NE Suite 700, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-227-3590; e-mail: press@naswdc.org; Web site: http://www.naswpress.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Grade 7; Grade 8; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A