4 Troubled Teens Blog

A new study from Australia finds that teenagers believe there are differences between being popular and being well-liked.

• Dr. Stephanie Hawke interviewed 200 teenagers, asking them what it means to be popular and how popular kids act.
• The teens told Dr. Hawke that popular teens were likely to be bullies who engage in risk-taking behaviors, such as sex and teen drug use.
• On the other hand, well-liked teenagers were described as people who were true to themselves.
• Being popular was related to what group you associated with, rather than how you were as a person.

The good news from the study was that as children in their late teens tended to find a balance between popularity and being well-liked.

By age 17 or so, Dr. Hawke said, teens develop their own sense of self rather than just going with the flow.

Labels: bullying, research, peers, drug_use, popular

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

A University of Michigan study found that males who are rule-breakers tend to be popular, and that their behavior has a genetic basis.

Professor Alexandra Burt collected DNA samples from over 200 male college students, and then had them interact for an hour. Afterward, participants filled out questionnaires about which participants they liked best.

The most popular in the study had a certain gene associated with rule-breaking behaviors.

"The gene predisposed them to rule breaking behaviors and that rule breaking behavior made them more popular," Dr. Burt said in her report published in the Journal of Personality and Social Development.

Labels: genetics, risky_behaviors, popular

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments