Question: Is there a difference between the genders?

Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 14 Jun 2011:

The big answer is ‘yes’, but it’s not quite as simple as that (it never is…)

Boys do tend to have more obvious behavioural problems than girls, they do tend to be more physically aggressive, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the only ones who we need to worry about. There are plenty of girls who also show behavioural problems, they might be involved in more covert (or ‘secretive’) behaviour – bullying, stealing or getting pregnant. Most of my work happens with boys, because it’s boys that tend to end up in special schools for children with behavioural problems – that’s because they tend to be more disruptive and difficult to manage in classrooms.

Quite often in research into antisocial behaviour, girls get left out a bit – I have some very good friends who have done work on girls with behaviour problems, including treatments dedicated just to girls. Although there is seemingly less antisocial behaviour in girls, there is no real evidence to suggest that there are any differences in the amount of genetic and environmental influences on behaviour. This means that girls are as likely as boys to have a biological vulnerability to bad behaviour. Even so, it’s still probably a good idea to think carefully about whether interventions for females should be the same as for males.