Citation

Lehman B. Youth Soc. 2020; 52(3): 490-509.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0044118X18760646

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Relational aggression involves excluding peers from social activities and spreading harmful rumors about the victim. Assumptions that only girls are victimized in this way are largely debunked, yet there is little research to explain why boys are victimized in this manner. This study poses the possibility that male adolescent victimization by relational aggression should operate in similar ways that verbal and physical bullying operate among U.S. adolescents. Logistic regression results based on the 2013 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey lend evidence to suggest that relational aggression can be used to sanction academically successful boys. While other studies found that academically successful boys can be bullied through verbal and physical means, these findings show that being excluded and having rumors spread about oneself are additional and previously unstudied ways that boys are punished by their peers for failing to display masculinity.

Language: en