How Girls and Boys Expect Disclosure About Problems Will Make Them Feel: Implications for Friendships

Abstract

Although girls disclose to friends about problems more than boys, little is known about processes underlying this sex difference. Four studies (Ns = 526, 567, 769, 154) tested whether middle childhood to mid-adolescent girls and boys differ in how they expect that talking about problems would make them feel. Girls endorsed positive expectations (e.g., expecting to feel cared for, understood) more strongly than boys. Despite common perceptions, boys did not endorse negative expectations such as feeling embarrassed or worried about being made fun of more than girls. Instead, boys were more likely than girls to expect to feel “weird” and like they were wasting time. Sex differences in outcome expectations did help to account for girls’ greater disclosure to friends.

Predicting Day-to-Day Changes in Students’ School-Related Affect From Daily Academic Experiences and Social Interactions

“…For example, it was expected that girls would report more daily academic successes than boys, that girls would disclose academic performance more than boys, and that girls would report more positive affect than boys. These findings would be consistent with evidence that girls receive better grades and hold more positive school attitudes than boys (e.g., Duckworth & Seligman, 2006) and with evidence that girls self-disclose more than boys (e.g., Rose et al, 2012). It was also expected that students who reported on interactions with family members would report both more success disclosures and more emotional support following success disclosures than students who reported on interactions with peers.…”

“…Although children's goals for doing so vary, one central goal seems to be to regulate affect (Altermatt, 2007(Altermatt, , 2011Rose & Asher, 2004). Both children and adults report that they sometimes share news of negative events with others in an attempt to alleviate distressing thoughts and feelings about the event or to get reassurance (Rimé, 2007;Rose & Asher, 2004;Rose et al, 2012;Taylor & Stanton, 2007). Likewise, both children and adults report that they sometimes share news of positive events with others in an attempt to capitalize on (Langston, 1994), celebrate, or savor the event (Altermatt, 2011;Altermatt & Broady, 2009;Jose, Lim, & Bryant, 2012;Reis et al, 2010).…”

Children and adolescents who stutter: Further investigation of anxiety

“…Higher levels of anxiety would not have been a surprise in the present study, given the negative psychosocial impact that stuttering can have on children and adolescents and even on preschoolers, including feelings of being incompetent as communicators. One possible explanation for the unremarkable Lie Scale scores of the female participants is that females are reported to feel more comfortable about disclosing their problems during childhood and adolescence than males (Rose et al, 2012). This is also the first study of anxiety to raise the possibility that children who stutter may conceal their true feelings under test conditions.…”

To tell or not to tell: What influences children’s decisions to report bullying to their teachers?

“…Support for this contention can be culled from findings demonstrating that boys and older children are less likely to disclose social problems (Rose et al, 2012). Thus, it was further hypothesized that boys and older children would be less willing to involve teachers compared to girls and younger students.…”