In the course of researching a business ethics paper, numerous references addressing children's harassment and violence kept appearing. I found this unsettling since my remembrances of childhood "bad" words, dispelled by chanting the above rhyme, seemed to lead to neither psychological nor physical harm. Articles referencing 'invasive communication', violence, and slang appeared as topics and keywords. Given the incidents of violent actions by children over the last several years, I have reviewed news articles and documented studies in an attempt to put a timeline on acquisition of this language and the consequences of behaviors that are associated with it.

Much of the research has been conceptual and theoretical with little of it empirical. I agree with Roberto and Finucane's (1997) assessment that this difficulty is due to the age and reading comprehension skills of children younger than 12.

Psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development favor the social learning theory. Social learning theorists differ from the behavioral view by emphasizing that children can regulate and control their own behavior. Like the behavioral approach, the social learning approach emphasizes the importance of empirical research in studying children's development. Their research focuses on the processes that explain children's development, the social and cognitive factors that influence what children are like. Behaviorists view language as just another behavior, like sitting, walking, or running. Psychologists, linguists, and education professionals have all explored the developing child, with the bulk of past research driven by psychologists. The media is packed with reports and accounts of the results of this behavior, but little documentation exists on the why and how of it.

A disturbing analysis of this study stated that shooting of girls at schools in this country during the winter and spring of 1997/98 indicated that girls were the deliberate targets of schoolchildren. This seems to support the concept that things only get worse if left unattended. Metal detectors and armed guards seem the norm in our high schools today. Can elementary schools be far behind?

Child against child violence at the kindergarten through 12 grades was the subject studied by Nan Stein (Stein, Fineran, & Linn, 1999). Debunking the prevailing stereotypes of girls' inasmuch as their passivity responses, girls were not passive in their response to violence. Stein also noted the lack of research on 'sexual violence' studies of younger elementary school children. The study states, "There is no immunity from sexual harassment"(Fineran, p. 214). While the study notes that no other reviewed studies addressed any means of protection against harassment, school intervention topped the first line of action, since boys are twice as likely as girls to engage in harassment are. Another solution, presenting age appropriate materials to young children addressing teasing and bullying in terms familiar to the children in the classroom is recommended.

Their subjects were 306 junior high students with half being in the public school system and half being in a private school with a Christian orientation. Their findings were quite significant. Their correlation ranged from .48 to .75 with a mean of .60. This translates into a more than direct correlation between argumentativeness and verbal aggression in adolescents. They also asked the question of when do these transformations occur.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3104
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)