Belief: Girls tend to hang out in smaller, more intimate groups than boys.
Not really. At least not by the time children reach the eighth grade, says a new Journal of Social and Personal Relationships article.
Jennifer Watling Neal, assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University, says her study is one of the first to look at how girls' and boys' peer networks develop across grades. Because children's peer-group structure can promote or mitigate negative behaviors like bullying and positive behaviors like helping others, Neal said it's important for researchers to have a better picture of what these groups look like.
If you watched Comedy Central last night, you may have seen a celebrity roast of David Hasselhoff and some research today is another reminder of "Knight Rider".
A new article concludes that early intervention for young people with delinquency problems may help prevent the development of crime, alcoholism and risky sex behaviors, especially among those with low incomes.
The study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry set out to examine the influence of delinquency behavior in late childhood development. The adolescent and young adults (800 people, ages 10 to 24, from low- and middle-income backgrounds) completed self-report assessments - so calibrate that accordingly - which included questions on delinquent involvement, alcohol use, and sexual activity in late childhood; delinquency and alcohol use in adolescence; and crime, AUDs, and risky sex in early adulthood.
