Boarding Schools for Girls

Teenagers form friendships based on common ethnicity, even in schools which have diverse populations, according to a new study from Stanford University.

• Dr. Matthew Jackson used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, and found that high school students are more likely to meet and be friends with people of their own race.
  
• Black students value friendships with students of other races at 55 percent compared to friendships with other blacks.
  
• For Asians, that figure is 90 percent.
  
• For white and Hispanic students, friendships with students of other races are valued at between 55 and 90 percent.
  
• Dr. Prudence Carter, a Stanford University sociologist, said that black students may segregate for a sense of community because they tend to be in the minority.

This study was presented at the National Proceedings of Science.

Labels: ethnicity, relationships, friendships

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

Young women who drink, smoke and use drugs may not only have a genetic tendency for substance abuse, but they also may have a genetic tendency to choose friends who also abuse substances. These friends in turn reinforce their habits, according to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

Professor Arpana Agrawal and her colleagues studied 2000 female twins. By comparing identical and fraternal twins, they found that selection of friends had a genetic basis, and that some young women also have a genetic predisposition toward drug abuse.

"Nature and nurture do not just combine to produce a woman who drinks, smokes or uses drugs -nurture can also increase the effect of nature," said Dr. Agrawal.

The study appeared in the journal Addiction.
 

Labels: friendships, alcohol

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 0 Comments

The fear of having no friends (or being unpopular) can be a stressful experience for all children -- and for parents, the mistaken belief that "only children" are more likely to have problems with peer relations can be particularly troublesome.

However, according to a new study from the Ohio State University, children without siblings are just as popular in school as those from bigger families,

• The study included 13,000 children enrolled in the National Study of Adolescent Health.
• When the researchers asked them to choose five friends, "only children" were chosen just as often as children who have siblings.
• Only children had poorer social skills when they were in nursery school but they became equal to their peers as they grew older.

"As family sizes get smaller in industrialized nations, there is concern about what it might mean for society as children grow up without brothers and sisters," said Professor Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, lead author of the study. "I don't think anyone has to be concerned that if you don't have siblings you won't learn social skills you need to get along with other students in high school."

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Labels: relationships, friendships, siblings

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment