Adolescence:
Change and ContinuityAdolescence:
Change and Continuity
What determines which adolescents are popular and which are rejected?
The chief determinant of a youngster's popularity during adolescence is his or her social skills. Popular adolescents act appropriately in the eyes of their peers, are skilled at perceiving and meeting the needs of others and are confident without being conceited. (Steinberg 1996) Additionally, popular adolescents are friendly, cheerful, good natured, humorous and intelligent. Those adolescents who are rejected show aggression, misconduct, delinquency, acting out and self centered behaviors. (Steinberg 1996) Most adolescents who are accepted into the popular group smile, laugh and have a good time being around each other. Those children who are rejected tend to be less happy around their peers, not smiling, laughing or joking. These are some reasons that these particular adolescents are not welcomed into the popular groups.
Are there problems affiliated with being involved in a peer group whether popular or rejected?
There are problems affiliated with being involved in a peer group whether popular or rejected. These problems consist of youth unemployment, teenage suicide, juvenile crime, delinquency, drug and alcohol use and premarital pregnancy. These problems have increased dramatically since the 1940's , due to the rise and power of peer groups. (Steinberg 1996) Some feel these problems have become more severe due to the isolation of adolescents from adults during this period.
Do popular adolescents have more support from peers than rejected adolescents?
Popular adolescents do have more support from their friends than rejected adolescents. Those who see their friendships as supportive have higher test scores, report card grades and are more involved in school. ( Feldman &Elliot 1990) These adolescents with supportive peers show positive attitudes toward friends, family and school. Rejected adolescents who believe that their friends are not supportive tend to have bad attitudes towards friends and family. They are less involved in school activities and find that spending time with their friends or peers is less enjoyable then those who are supported.
For additional information:
Are popular students more likely to engage in unhealthy behavior
than unpopular students?
Many people question the prevalence of unhealthy behavior among popular groups of adolescents. Often, a greater involvement with the peer group can lead to unhealthy behaviors if that is what the norm is within the group. The types of behaviors that are looked at in most studies are drug use, alcohol consumption, physical activity, smoking, and eating habits.
Adolescents who are not as peer-oriented as the popuar students can often resist the peer pressure and temptation to involve themselves in these activities. There is no significant evidence, however, that states that popular groups of teens are more likely than unpopular groups to act in unhealthy ways (Terre, 1992).
Is alcohol consumption more prevalent among popular groups?
Popular students are often invited to parties and similar social gatherings, where there is a chance that they will be exposed to alcohol. Many of these adolescents feel pressured to drink in order to fit in with their group of friends. Apparently in many groups of teens alcohol is used as an acceptance meter and if one doesn't drink, he or she may be looked down upon by his or her friends. This is usually more common among boys than it is among girls. Studies have found that other deviant behaviors, such as taking drugs or being antisocial, are not related to peer acceptance the way that alcohol is (Feldman, 1995).
Drinking to fit in with the popular crowd is not new to modern times. In the book Adolescent Society, by James Coleman, teens were asked what one had to do to become popular and drinking was one of the top five answers. This dates back to 1961, when the studies were done. This shows that for quitesome time alcohol use has been prevalent among elite high school groups.
Which crowds are more likely to be involved in sexual behavior?
Kids that were rejected in grade school were usually involved in misconduct, which is associated with later numbers of sexual partners in high school. These kids showed low levels of self-restraint at young ages and then went on to show low self-restraint when involved in a sexual situation.
Popular students, however, are also likely to have many opportunities to have sexual intercourse. This is because most of these teens are successful at dating and are likely to have a number of potential partners (Feldman, 1995).
For More Information . . .
What behaviors are associated with being rejected from the peer
group?
Not all individuals are rejected by peers for the same reasons. Researchers believe that those who are unpopular lack some of the social skills and social understanding that is necessary to become popular. Rejection is often related to those who are aggressive, disruptive, hyperactive, and bossy. There are three types of unpopular adolescents: aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive-withdrawn (Steinberg, 1996). Aggressive adolescents are more likely to get into fights with other peers, are not involved in group activity, and are usually considered the "bully". Withdrawn adolescents are shy, timid, and are usually the victim of the bully. Aggressive-withdrawn individuals have problems controlling their hostility like aggressive adolescents yet, they tend to be nervous about initiating friendships like withdrawn adolescents (Steinberg, 1996).
Does being unpopular have negative consequences for the adolescent?
Being unpopular has many negative consequences that can affect the adolescents mental health and psychological development. Rejection by the peer group has been associated with misconduct, delinquency, depression, academic difficulties, and antisocial behavior (Coie & Cillessen, 1993). This has been found as early as childhood and may predict a variety of negative outcomes throughout adulthood. Not all of these outcomes are the same for every unpopular person. Aggressive adolescents are usually in the same peer group as other aggressive adolescents and are at risk for conduct problems. Withdrawn adolescents are more likely to feel lonely, are uncertain around peers, and want help finding friends. The more these individuals are teased and rejected the more they are at risk for low self-esteem and diminished social competence (Steinberg, 1996). Those who are at the highest risk are aggressive-withdrawn. These individuals are at risk for a series of negative consequences during adolescence and through the course of adulthood (Coie & Cillessen, 1993).
Can rejected peers be helped to become popular?
Psychologists have been experimenting with ways to help improve the rejected adolescents social skills. Programs have been designed to help teach social skills, such as self-expression, questioning others about themselves, and leadership (Steinberg, 1996). One incentive that has been developed to help these individuals gain better social skills is a social problem solving program. The program was developed to help improve adolescents' abilities to make friends, help them judge social situations, and assess them in figuring out acceptable ways of behaving. For example, adolescents in this type of program are taught how to calm down and think before they react, decide what the problem is, figure out what their goal is, and to think about positive approaches toward reaching that goal. The intervention programs that have been designed to help teach youths how to make friends and gain the appropriate social skills needed have had a positive influence on helping rejected individuals form a social status. These programs will help adolescents acquire skills to produce and maintain stable friendships.
Everyone knows him. Everyone has gone to school with him at one time or another. He's the kid who just can't seem to learn his lesson. He's the one who makes fun of the other kids for things that they can't control, such as reading slow or not having the nicest clothes. He's that one kid in class that makes the girls cry. This same boy will be the first in his grade to start a fight among the other boys as he grows older. He'll go on to experiment with drugs and cigarettes. He'll eventually come to a fork in the road where he has two options: he'll either mature and outgrow this phase or he'll drop out of high school and continue his behavior. You know him, you hate him, he's the class bully.
Anne Garrett discusses some rather startling facts about bullying in her 2001
book titled "Keeping American Schools Safe". The information she provides
is based upon a study that took place in America in 1997 and 1998. To start
off, the number of elementary school teachers who reported that students talk
back and disobey not only other students but also the teachers has dramatically
increased.
Bullying occurs in all types of schools, not only in elementary schools. In fact, over the course of a year, approximately 16% of all high school students report having been in at least one physical fight (Garrett, 2001).
Who are the bullies?
Bullies can be found in mostly every elementary school, teasing and harassing
the other students. Many students and even more so parents of victimized students
often wonder what triggers this type of delinquent behavior in people who are
so young in age. Many people think that bullies possess some sort of psychological
problem.
Frantz and Moser (2000) agree with this theory as they present four psychological
characteristics that characterize bullies:
Frantz and Moser (2000) also comment on the fact that although bullies tend
to be aggressive people, overall they have very similar self-esteem and anxiety
levels to their non-bullying peers.
Bullies tend to come from families that use authoritarian methods of parenting, which means they typically come from families who do not pay much attention to their children and are not actively involved in their lives (Frantz & Moser, 2000).
Who Are the Victims?
Victims of bullying are not chosen at random. Bullies narrow down and pinpoint
who they want to harass. Frantz and Moser (2000) tell us that victims are those
students in school who have the following characteristics:
Latino and African American students feel higher levels danger when at school than do white students (Garrett, 2001). This may be because there are lower percentages of these nationalities in the country and therefore the majority races feel the need to gang up on them. Males are victimized much more often than are females. Bullies may think that it is inappropriate to tease females so they choose to instigate males. Usually those who are unpopular in school are targeted as well as those students who have psychological problems and worry often (Shafii & Shafii, 2001).
Why Bully?
When student who bullied were confronted with the question of why bullies act as they do, the majority of respondents said that there is no good reason why they act in that manner (Glover, Cartwright & Gleeson, 1998). Youngsters who bully others are sometimes bored and uninterested with what is going on at school and are looking for an escape. Sadly, harassment and irritation of others is the path that they sometimes take.
Glover, Cartwright and Gleeson (1998) present four reasons why students bully
their peers. They are as follows:
Bullies are many times influenced by their peers. Often times they may harass others because someone else told them to, or because they believe that it will make them more popular. Peer pressure is a large contributing factor to the event of bullying and is present in numerous elementary and middle schools.
How Can We Stop Bullying?
Bullying is obviously a large problem in various schools around the world.
There are a number of intervention strategies that can be used to prevent bullying
from occurring. One primary intervention program has been proven to work extremely
well. Frantz and Moser (2000) give us the eight key tactics for this approach,
called the Bullying Prevention Program (BPP):
Some schools have found it successful to implement a set of rules or Code of
Conduct to put an end to bullying (Glover, Cartwright & Gleeson, 1998).
It is suggested that in order to put an end to bullying, the way the teacher
and parents behave should be addressed as well as the way in which the child
behaves. This will help strengthen the relationship between school and home,
which can in turn stop the behavior of the child (Frantz & Moser, 2000).
Victims can also take a variety of measures to help defend themselves against
bullies. Some are:
References
This site was produced by students taking HDFS 433: The Transition to Adulthood and HDFS 239: Adolescent Development at the Pennsylvania State University. Feedback can be sent to the individual authors or to Nancy Darling (darling@bard.edu).
Last updated 5/07/02.