What do you say to teasers? Parent and child evaluations of responses to teasing

Teasing is a common and sometimes problematic event in childhood that has r eceived little empirical attention. In the current study, target responses to teasing were manipulated by editing an ignore, empathy-inducing, humorou s, or hostile reaction to a child's teasing into a videotaped story. Parent s (n = 117) and their children (n = 147) rated these responses and gave inf ormation about their own teasing experiences. Parents and children both app roved of the nonhostile responses more than the hostile response but disagr eed on several of the open-ended items about their experiences with teasing . Response preferences varied by the child's gender and his or her experien ces with teasing. Implications for parental advice about teasing are discus sed.