Research Details Perils of Not Being Attractive or Athletic in Middle School

Life is harder for adolescents who are not attractive or athletic. New research shows low attractive and low athletic youth became increasingly unpopular over the course of a school year, leading to subsequent increases in their loneliness and alcohol misuse. As their unpopularity grows, so do their problems.

Copy-cat? Youth with Few Friends Conform to Stay in a Friend’s ‘Good Graces’

What gives one friend influence over another? Considerable attention has focused on who influences whom; much less is known about why one partner is prone to be influenced by the other. A study tested the hypothesis that within a friend dyad, having fewer friends than one’s partner increases susceptibility to influence, because it reduces dissimilarity and promotes compatibility. Results showed that partners with fewer friends were influenced by children with more friends. In each case, the partner with fewer friends became more similar to the partner with more friends. Academic engagement was the only domain where partners with fewer friends also influenced partners with more friends.

Seat Assignments Drive Friendships Among Elementary School Children

Most teachers focus on academic considerations when assigning seats. A new study is the first to show that these classroom seat assignments also have important implications for children’s friendships and the enormous influence that teachers wield over the interpersonal lives of children.

Virginia Tech researchers show teens with risk-averse peers make safer choices

In a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Virginia Tech neuroscientists at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC show that observing peers making sound decisions may help young people play it safe. The discovery may one day inform measures to help teens make healthy decisions.