Understanding Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Girls

Historically, girls have evoked images of sweetness and light, purity and beauty. In this fairytale land of youth, girls are angels and princesses, characterized by positive adjustment and certainly not by behavioral or emotional problems. However, as Mae West observed, in reality female children and adolescents are much more complex, with both positive and negative aspects to their development and adjustment. Unfortunately, the complexity has been understudied in the developmental psychopathology literature. Compared to the amount of research attention given to boys' development and adjustment, girls have been relatively neglected. This lack of attention has obvious negative implications for our ability to understand girls' development and our efforts to promote optimal development and to remediate problematic development.