The unrelenting drive to be older and more popular is a root of a great chunk of the misery in many students' middle school years. Now, a study in the Journal of Child Development suggests the kids at the top of the pecking order in junior high tend to fall behind their peers as they come into adulthood.
In the study, "Whatever Happened to the 'Cool' Kids?" lead author Joseph P. Allen, a psychologist at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and his colleagues tracked 184 adolescents from ages 13 to 23, not only interviewing the students but peers and classmates, who provided outside information on the students' popularity. In particular, the researchers studied how often they engaged in common, mildly risky teenage behaviors: "minor deviance, a focus on physical appearance in choosing friends, and precocious romantic activity." Translation: Smoking marijuana and doing mildly criminal things like vandalism, being cliquey and mean, and falling hopelessly in love with a new kid every week.
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