Why Kids Tease
Child-development experts believe that children sometimes tease because they are working out anger, frustration, insecurity, or sibling rivalry they experience at home. Other times, they might be uncertain about their ability to make lasting friendships and express this anxiety through teasing.
Lewis Lipsitt, an emeritus professor of child psychology at Brown University, describes the preschool years as a time when kids grow more sensitive to individual differences.
He also says that as children get older, they interact with more kids and more diverse types of kids, which often leads to more competitive activities. This competition for attention or playthings, Lipsitt says, can cause children to denigrate their competitors by excluding them from play or by teasing them about some aspect of their difference.
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