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Girl Talk Has Its Limits
New York Times ^ | September 10, 2008 | Sarah Kershaw

Posted on 09/10/2008 9:51:55 PM PDT by reaganaut1

MOST teenage girls love to talk to their friends. And talk. And talk.

...

But recently female friendship and girl talk, particularly among adolescents, has drawn growing interest from psychologists and researchers examining the question of how much talking is too much talking. Some studies have found that excessive talking about problems can contribute to emotional difficulties, including anxiety and depression.

The term researchers use is “co-rumination” to describe frequently or obsessively discussing the same problem. The behavior is typical among teens — Why didn’t he call? Should I break up with him? And, psychologists say, it has intensified significantly with e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging and Facebook. And in certain cases it can spin into a potentially contagious and unhealthy emotional angst, experts say.

The research distinguishes between sharing or “self-disclosure,” which is associated with positive friendships and positive feelings, and dwelling on problems, concerns and frustrations. Dwelling and rehashing issues can keep girls, who are more prone to depression and anxiety than boys, stuck in negative thinking patterns, psychologists say. But they also say it is a mixed picture: friends who co-ruminate tend to be close, and those intimate relationships can build self-esteem.

For boys, such intense emotional conversations, which tend to occur less often, did not contribute to heightened anxiety or depressive moods, according to research by Amanda J. Rose, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

“When girls are talking about these problems, it probably feels good to get that level of support and validation,” said Dr. Rose, whose latest study on co-rumination was published in the journal Developmental Psychology last year. “But they are not putting two and two together, that actually this excessive talking can make them feel worse.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: mentalhealth; teenagegirls
I do think many teenage girls and women make themselves unhappy by brooding over relatively minor problems. Professional feminists make a career out of it. In his autobiographical books, Obama dwells on minor slights and sounds girly to me.
1 posted on 09/10/2008 9:51:55 PM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

The term is “unhappily self-centered”.


2 posted on 09/10/2008 10:01:31 PM PDT by Bosco (Remember how you felt on September 11?)
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To: reaganaut1

Most MSM reporters seem to have a great deal in common with teenaged girls in this regard......


3 posted on 09/10/2008 10:43:18 PM PDT by Enchante ("Troopergate" = Obama Democrats Working Hard to Smear Governor Palin in a Non-Scandal)
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To: reaganaut1

Self-absorption, thy name is modern woman.


4 posted on 09/10/2008 10:53:35 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: reaganaut1
,,, social acceptance isn't as much of an issue with teenage boys and tea and sympathy networking in a worry club isn't part of their composition.

If girls can do anything (as the bumper stickers say they can), it's time they snapped out of it. They've got a world to run, haven't they?

5 posted on 09/11/2008 7:01:24 AM PDT by shaggy eel
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To: reaganaut1

Women like to point out men’s problems and tendencies all day long, but can’t see their own negative tendencies. I can attest to the fact that too much discussion of who has victimized you today, doesn’t help one’s mood.


6 posted on 09/11/2008 7:27:19 AM PDT by beaversmom
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