The following article reviews two studies in the field of developmental psychology; more specifically, it focuses on the antisocial behavior of adolescents. The researchers of these two studies published their findings in renowned psychology journals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first study involved children in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The researchers surveyed 163 participants (72 males and 91 females). The survey listed 23 antisocial behaviors, and young adolescents reported whether they had ever participated in each activity. Then each subject reported how often they engaged in these activities in the past year. Because of the significant differences between how males and females answered 33% of the yes/no questions, the researchers conducted factor analyzes by gender. This study found that there are many different reasons for antisocial behavior in adolescents. The researchers found that male adolescents tended to be more violent than females. Females who exhibited violence did not direct their aggression against individuals as males did. Antisocial women tended to engage in other types of deviant behavior, such as school exclusion and drunkenness, more than their male counterparts. Furthermore, males were more specialized in deviant behaviors; the reasons for their actions appeared clearer. Males who participated in violent behavior were different from those involved in property damage and other types of crime. From the results of this research, it can be concluded that antisocial behavior is gender specific; males and females are involved in different types of deviance. The second study had similar results; however, he went further in explaining the causes of adolescents' antisocial behaviors. The researchers conducted a longitudinal study in which they studied 314 third, fourth, and fifth graders. Later, as these children entered ninth and 10th grade, the researchers returned to conduct further assessments. 85% of the original participants did not take part in the second half of the study; however, the researchers conducted analyzes and found that these dropouts did not alter the results. The researchers used different types of tests. Initially, when studying children, they used a peer social preferences test, which asked children to evaluate their peers and decide which ones made good playmates. They also used academic and behavioral teacher ratings, in which teachers rated their students' academic performance, as well as the child's level of popularity among other children. In addition to these surveys, teachers completed Pupil Evaluation Inventories (PEIs) and the Walker McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment (WMC) for each student. The IEP is a list of 34 behaviors, and teachers select all of the behaviors that apply to each student. The WMC is a list of 43 behaviors and teachers determine how often a child engages in deviant behavior, using a scale of one to five. The researchers also used classroom and playground observations. While studying the children as adolescents, the researchers asked the subjects to fill out surveys, contact local authorities to obtain police records, conduct structured interviews with the adolescents, and ask the participants' mothers to rate their children's problem behaviors using asimilar scale as self-evaluation. report the survey. This study also found a gender difference in antisocial behavior. The researchers found that males who reported fighting with their peers and suffering rejection from peers tended to be antisocial. Predictors of female antisocial behavior caused problems in lower grades and problems with schoolwork. Both studies found a gender difference in adolescents' antisocial behaviors; however, the first study focused more on the types of deviance each gender engages in, while the second study dealt more with the predictors and reasons behind the behaviors. The first study briefly addressed the reasons. It is stated that males tend to be clearer about why they participate in certain behaviors while it is more obscure to understand why a female does so. The second article, in a certain sense, states the same thing. It is easy to understand why a male becomes antisocial. Those who do this were tormented by their peers when they were young. Because of the first persecutions, they lash out. The behaviors don't end there; continue into adolescence. On the other hand, female adolescents' antisocial behavior seems to be more of a mystery. According to the second study, women who became antisocial had academic problems and caused some problems in their early school years. They do not appear to be as deviant as their male counterparts. One reason for their behavior is academic problems, which seem unrelated. The first study concluded that female antisocial behavior did not tend to be violent and, if it was, it was not directly against any particular people. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the path of the problem, as suggested in the second study, is not personal in nature. The problem is academic failures, which undermine their self-esteem. Maybe they don't blame people for their shortcomings but they blame themselves. It appears that the researchers involved in the second study conducted their research using better means than the first group of researchers. The first study is based solely on adolescent students' response to a survey. This is a one-off test and therefore cannot provide as much information as a longitudinal study. Furthermore, it only takes into account self-assessment. Even if young people were completely honest in filling out the survey, they do not necessarily know each other well enough to be able to objectively evaluate their actions. A common phenomenon for individuals in this stage of life is adolescent egocentrism, in which an individual feels that the world revolves around him. The adolescents involved in the study may not see their behaviors as deviant or harmful. They may underestimate the amount of harm they cause with such behaviors. In this article I learned that there is clearly a gender difference in adolescent antisocial behavior. The studies, however, raise a couple of questions. First of all, how much does nature influence gender differences and what kind of role does nurture play? Furthermore, I wonder why poor academic performance causes women to behave antisocially, and why academic performance does not affect their male counterparts in the same way. If I were to conduct research based on the results of these two studies, I would perform another longitudinal study. Since I have more questions about female antisocial behavior, I can focus my study only on girls. I could take a sample of girls younger than those previously studied, evaluating them before they go to school. I can observe the behaviors of each one.