Jealousy

According to the study cited below

“Jealousy emerged most intensely in the majority of children between approximately 1.1 and 2.3 years and at 3.5 years children distinguished between social situations which elicit jealousy.”

Masciuch, S., & Kienapple, K. (1993). The Emergence of Jealousy in Children 4 Months to 7 Years of Age. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407593103008

 

In clinical practice, there does not appear to be a widely accepted way of staging jealousy. Although there are components. For example, there can be jealous thoughts, like “I really like that person’s car [compared to mine].” Then feelings can accompany this, of anger and resent. Questions of why that person has it and you do not, feeling just as worthy of having that privilege. There can then be behaviors influenced by jealousy. Just a few examples can include becoming competitive, passive aggressiveness, and more. Jealousy can have the potential to have toxic effects and can be consuming in severe cases which can severely distort how we experience in perceive things in a way that is far from accurate, which may affect our behaviors.

 

Not necessarily. Some of us are genetically predisposed to certain temperaments. Although the environment can have an impact. For example, a child who grows up not feeling loved or secure, can feel insecure in future relationships (especially if their childhood had a strong theme of abandonment) such that when they encounter one they value, they can start to fear abandonment and become hyper attuned to even the slightest possibility of the relationship taking a different turn. Jealousy can also be motivating and is theorized to potentially have an evolutionary role in certain contexts.

 

It can be. Jealousy is often themed around fears of loss and trauma responses are themed often around fear of loss or some sort of disastrous outcome.

 

There are both environment and biological factors at play.