Kids Can Start Carrying Their Cross at Preschool

Eric Scheske has seen it in one or two of his eldest daughter's friends, and he remembers seeing it as a youth: meanness in girls. It apparently starts at toddler age. Link. Excerpts:

Meanness in girls can start when they still are toddlers, a Brigham Young University study found. It found that girls as young as 3 or 4 will use manipulation and peer pressure to get what they want.

The "mean girls" are highly liked by some and strongly disliked by others. They are socially skilled and popular but can be manipulative and subversive if necessary. They are feared as well as respected.

Researchers have long known that adolescents, particularly girls, engage in this sort of behavior, called relational aggression, to maintain their social status.

We find it totally believable that the behavior starts at toddler age. Eric has commented more than once to his wife, "I'm telling ya, that girl is a manipulative young lady" (substitute more colorful language). His wife, on the other hand, routinely comes to the defense of the fourteen-month-olds.