The movie Mean Girls may have likened social interaction among teenage females to animals fighting for territory in the Serengeti desert, but a new study suggests boys are up for a little rumour-spreading, too.

Boys are just as likely as girls to spread rumours, gossip and intentionally exclude others, which is known as indirect, or social, aggression, new research suggests.

The study's findings question a commonly held belief that boys are more likely to use physical violence when they are being aggressive.

The research also suggests that girls don't have a monopoly on social aggression, something that movies and other pop culture images would have people believe.

"These conclusions challenge the popular misconception that indirect aggression is a female form of aggression," lead study author Noel A. Card, assistant professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona, said in a statement.

Card conducted the research with colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Kansas. The findings are published in the journal Child Development.

The researchers analyzed data from 148 studies that were conducted at large schools and included nearly 74,000 children and adolescents.

The team examined both direct, or physical, aggression as well as indirect aggression, which is defined as covert behaviour that attempts to damage someone's reputation among their friends.

Based on the findings, children who regularly engage in one form of aggression are likely to engage in the other form, the researchers concluded. This is seen in more boys than girls.

However, girls also use physical aggression, the authors said.

The researchers also found links between both forms of aggression and specific social problems.

Direct aggression is associated with delinquency, ADHD symptoms, poor relationships with friends and a limited ability to engage in behaviours such as helping and sharing, known as prosocial behaviours.

Prosocial behaviours are defined as actions that directly benefit others.

Indirect aggression is associated with depression and low self esteem but also with better prosocial behaviour. However, those behaviours may be needed to encourage peers to gossip about, or exclude, others.