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This Media post shows some of the stereotypes people have for men and women, it also presents the idea that the stereotypes are unnecessary and hurtful to all men and women alike, as nobody enjoys getting judged for being themselves. This production was written by Cody Creek. Jack Helmke, Cody Creek, and a willing volunteer Alicia Hesselton were the actors in the video. The film Was Edited By Lynn Piefer.

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This Is a brief comic style children's book about friendships that can begin at young ages. It is about how a group of friends that share emotions, and bond over activities can form great relationships. It follows a group of friends (both girls and boys are included in the group) from preschool to High school, and it tells how the friendship can last for so long, and grow to be so strong.

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Web-based app for making ebooks in the classroom. Teachers can get started for free and invite students to join their library. Add text, images, audio and video and easily publish your books online.

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This mind map quickly summarizes a lot of our information into much broader topics. It points out that assumptions/stereotypes aren't really necessary in our society and who they affect when they're used. Specifically, it talks about how men and women are separated, told to fit into their own box of activities they do and friends they hang out with. Men and women are supposed to show a certain amount of emotion depending on their gender, regardless of how much they want to or is good for them.

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Annotated Bibliography

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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This article, in short, is about the socialization of children in their early years. Gender socialization is the process through which children learn about the social expectations, attitudes and behaviors typically associated with boys and girls. This website looks at the socialization process and the factors that influence gender development in children.

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Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development

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Gender: early socialization | Peer socialization of gender in young boys and girls | Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development

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One important way in which children learn about gender roles and develop gender-typed behaviour and attitudes is through their interactions with peers.

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Article: How Friendships Push Teens To Delinquency

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Article: How Friendships Push Teens To Delinquency

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This is a website from Penn state by Matthew Swayne. He is a professor at Penn state. This article talks about how teens, especially girls, are very likely to make poor decisions because of their influences: their friends or friend groups that they're in.

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The friends that adolescents select, the influence they have on each other, and gender may all play a role in establishing friendships that can help, or possibly hurt, teens, according to new research.

In a new study of adolescent friendship networks, researchers found that for both boys and girls, friend selection and friend influence guided the adoption of risky behaviors, says lead author Cassie McMillan, a doctoral student in sociology and criminology at Penn State. Gender also plays a role in how selection and influence shape a few of those behaviors, including smoking and delinquency, she adds.

"There are a lot of questions about whether peer influence can explain why kids tend to have similar negative behaviors to their friends, or whether it's the result of friend selection, which is when an adolescent goes out and seeks friends who do similar things," says McMillan.

"In this study, we found that, yes, both peer influence and friend selection are shaping the same risky behavior patterns that we see in friendships." The findings appear in the journal Social Networks.

Queen bees and wannabes?

The researchers found that, compared to boys, girls tend to be more influenced by their friends to engage in delinquent behavior, which includes skipping class and fighting. They also found that girls tend to select friends who share similar smoking habits to their own.

There are a few reasons why influence and selection guide some behaviors for girls, more so than boys, McMillan says.

"We think that for peer influence, the gendered patterns have a lot to do with the characteristics of the behavior, rather than the character or the structure of the friendships that girls and boys have," says McMillan.

"Girls may need another force, such as influence, to get pushed into becoming involved in delinquency."

"Delinquency-especially getting into fights and stealing-is often portrayed in the media as more masculine behavior, so this may be a more normative script for boys. Boys don't necessarily need the influence from their friends in order to get involved in these types of activities, while girls may need another force, such as influence, to get pushed into becoming involved in delinquency."

In addition, because smoking is such a visible behavior, girls likely seek out friends who have similar smoking habits, the researchers suggest.

"Smoking is noticeable on school campuses, so kids are more apt to be more aware of who the smokers are in a school," says McMillan. "Girls are socialized from a very young age to be quite selective about who their friends are. Perhaps that's why girls are more likely to select friends who have similar smoking-and nonsmoking-behavior."

Circle of (at-risk) friends

Learning more about how friendship networks shape adolescent behavior could lead to better prevention strategies, especially for at-risk kids, McMillan says.

"While some earlier work suggested that boys might be immune to these influences, one of the most important takeaways for us from the study is that both boys and girls are subject to peer influence and friend selection, so prevention programs should keep teaching both boys and girls these skills," McMillan says.

While risky behaviors were examined in this study, McMillan says that friendship networks may also shape positive behaviors, which could be used in future prevention and intervention programs. She adds that the findings could also help future research aimed at tailoring those programs.

"For example, because girls are more prone to influence for delinquency, it would be good to show examples in a prevention campaign of girls resisting peer pressure when it comes to delinquent behavior," says McMillan. "I also think there's a lot of value in doing group-based prevention strategies that focus on changing the behaviors of groups of friends."

The researchers used data from 13,214 students who participated in the PROSPER (Promoting School-Community Partnerships to Enhance Resilience) study. Participants attended school in one of 28 small public school districts from sixth grade to ninth grade. The school districts were located in rural communities or small cities in Iowa and Pennsylvania.

The first wave of students entered the study in 2002. Participants took self-administered surveys in the fall and spring of their sixth grade and then in the spring of each year between seventh and ninth grades. To establish friendship networks among the students, the survey asked participants to identify their best and closest friends in their grade.

The W.T. Grant Foundation, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the National Science Foundation supported this work.

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How friendships can push teens-especially girls-to delinquency - Futurity

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The friends that adolescents select, the influence they have on each other, and gender may all play a role in establishing friendships that can help, or possibly hurt, teens, according to new research.

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Video: Physiological and Chemical Difference TED Talk

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Video: Physiological and Chemical Difference TED Talk

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This TED Talk highlighted some established differences between men and women in terms of their brains and chemicals in their brains. Women are more compassionate due to a chemical that their brains release. Men have a more developed amygdala, causing more emotional reactions, especially anger.

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The Differences Between Men and Women: Paul Zak at TEDxAmsterdamWomen

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This  TED talk is simply a fun conversation played out between 3 old friends. They discuss their friendships with each other and their friendships with other people. They talk about how they keep up with their friends, and they discuss female friendships in general. This Video is just a fun, true conversation between friends about  feminism, female friendships, and the differences between male and female friendships.

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A hilarious celebration of lifelong female friendship | Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin

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Article: Many Boys Struggle To Keep Long Distance Friendships

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Article: Many Boys Struggle To Keep Long Distance Friendships

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In this article, Janet Olsen talks about how boys struggle to maintain close relationships. Women tend to try to stay in touch with one another for longer periods than men do. Men can go for a few years at a time without calling or texting their friends. Women tend to be more social and get together to hangout more often than men do.

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Explore more about these struggles and ways adults can support the healthy relationships that boys desire and need.

February 9, 2017 - Author: Janet Olsen,

Wanting to have close, intimate and healthy relationships is part of what makes us human, and these kinds of connections are essential to our overall well-being. In fact, many studies have shown that people who have positive social relationships and close friendships live longer and healthier lives. While some people may struggle with building and maintaining these kinds of relationships, researcher Niobe Way stresses that these struggles are especially prevalent in the lives of adolescent boys. By learning more about what she calls this "crisis of connection," Way says that parents, educators and other caring adults can find important opportunities to nurture boys' innate desires and capacities for close friendships with one another.

Way, the author of Deep Secrets: Boys' Friendships and the Crisis of Connection, has studied the social and emotional development of boys for three decades. In a recent webcast provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health, Way talked about boys' consistent reports of sadness over losing close friendships, and she described some of the things that influence their struggles to develop and maintain loving and emotional connections with other boys. These include cultural messages and norms about masculinity that begin to play a larger role during early adolescence in how boys view both themselves and each other. Boys report that they risk being labeled as "girly," "gay" or "childish" if they express a desire for close relationships with other boys and if they share vulnerable feelings with them. Boys also struggle with cultural norms about maturity as they move through adolescence. This is in response to messages that boys and men are supposed to be self-sufficient, independent, stoic and able to take care of themselves - as opposed to having characteristics that reflect community, connections to others, caring and empathy.

To address this crisis of connection, Way stresses that adults must be willing to talk about how normal it is for people of all ages - including adolescent boys - to want to be part of close and caring friendships. When boys hear this message, it opens the doors for them to talk about their own vulnerabilities and desires for connection. In turn, having these kinds of conversations with boys helps adults to recognize the emotional intelligence and perceptions that boys already possess related to these issues. You can also use the following kinds of strategies to support and nurture boys around these issues.

Challenge gender stereotypes

The work of brain researchers such as Lise Eliot has shown that boys and girls (and men and women) are much more similar than they are different in their core capacities related to social and emotional intelligence. Whenever anyone says that girls tend to be "feelers" and boys tend to be "thinkers," respond that both feeling and thinking are valuable human qualities that all people draw from. Also be willing to explore and challenge your own beliefs, attitudes and behaviors related to gender, gender expression, and notions of masculinity and femininity. Think about the messages you may consciously or unconsciously convey in the language you use with and about boys and girls that might reflect narrow conceptions of gender.

Talk with young people about sexual orientation and homophobic language

If boys express concerns about being described as gay when they talk about the desire for close relationships with one another, be willing to have conversations with them about the differences between a person's sexual orientation and the needs that all people have for close and caring friendships - including same-sex friendships. In addition, if you hear young people (or adults) use homophobic language to describe others, be willing to interrupt and challenge that behavior.

Provide boys with settings that promote healthy friendships and a sense of community

Way stressed that it's not enough for boys to have places where they can just "hang out." They need opportunities to spend quality time with one another where they can be vulnerable with and supportive of each another. This can happen under the guidance of programs lead by caring adults (such as teachers, coaches, youth group leaders and faith leaders) in settings where boys can develop and sustain relationships over time. Within these programs and settings, adults and youth can have ongoing dialogue about healthy relationships, and they can work in partnership to ensure that the environment is safe and welcoming for everyone.

Invest in family activities that promote boys' friendships

Starting when they're very young, boys take in messages about what it means to be a boy or man in our culture - including messages about males' relationships. By talking with boys early on about what you value in friendships and other kinds of relationships, it will help keep these kinds of conversations going as boys move through adolescence. Fathers and other male family members can provide boys with models of their own same-sex friendships, as well as conversations about what it takes to maintain these friendships and handle conflicts within these relationships. During the middle school and high school years, find ways to nourish boys' friendships by inviting friends to spend time at your home and to be part of family gatherings and outings.

As stressed by Way, boys' healthy friendships not only contribute to their positive health and well-being, these relationships help prevent risky outcomes such as drug use and poor academic achievement. To learn more about Way's research, view the recording of the 30-minute webcast. In addition, you may be interested in resources provided by Michigan State University Extension related to the social and emotional health of young people. Among these is an initiative called Be SAFE: Safe, Affirming and Fair Environments, which includes a curriculum designed to help adults and young people work in partnership to create positive relationships and inclusive settings.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

Tags: bullying, caregiving, early childhood development, family, food & health, healthy relationships, managing relationships, msu extension, social and emotional development, violence prevention

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Many boys struggle with maintaining close friendships with one another during adolescence

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Explore more about these struggles and ways adults can support the healthy relationships that boys desire and need. February 9, 2017 - Author: Janet Olsen, Wanting to have close, intimate and healthy relationships is part of what makes us human, and these kinds of connections are essential to our overall well-being.

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From our research we learned that we start making lifelong friendships from a young age, and we learned all about the different types of friendships between men and women. Our research showed how friendships can affect us, our friends can push us to make poor decisions, but they can also stand by us and encourage us to do great things. In our opinions, we wouldn't be who we are today without our friends. We need to be able to talk to someone that we trust, respect, and cherish, you don' t have to be a specific gender to know that.