Enough with Mean Streak!

I don't know if I am doing something to cause this myself, or if it is just random but mean streak is my least favourite childhood phase (they all annoy me a little bit, but mean streak is the worst) because I can't get their social need up easily without hurting their empathy, and this becomes a problem if I want the sim to have the empathetic trait. However, I often get this phase twice in the same child, it sometimes happens days after the phase goes away. Is there anything I can do to prevent this childhood phase? I can put it up with it once, or cheat to remove it but is there any way I can prevent it completely?