Female aggression revisited: Variable- and person-centered approaches to studying gender differences in different types of aggression

We looked for evidence supporting the hypothesis that girls are more indirectly aggressive than boys by 1) comparing the average scores of girls and boys on the Direct Indirect Aggression Scales [Bjorkqvist et al., 1992b], and 2) by comparing the distributions of boys and girls in five cluster groups representing different 'aggression profiles', or combinations of values in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression. The subjects were 526 children in three separate age groups: 10, 12, and 14 years. While boys were, on average, both directly and indirectly more aggressive than girls, the cluster analysis revealed a group of highly aggressive adolescents whose use of aggression was predominantly indirect. The members of this cluster group (n = 36) were all girls. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.