Understanding aggression with adolescent girls: implications for policy and practice.

Seventy at-risk adolescent girls in 7 residential facilities were interviewed over a 12-month period. The girls were asked questions regarding experiences, thoughts, and feelings about physical and verbal fights with friends and parents. Results showed that many of these girls reported different reasons for starting and escalating verbal and physical fights, they had more negative feelings for verbal fights than for physical fights, and had similar thought processes during both kinds of fights. More girls acknowledged responsibility for starting fights with parents than they did with peers. Implications of the results for treatment of female young offenders and the development of public policy are discussed.