Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Teen Dating Violence Sets Stage for Future Abusive Relationships

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Teens who are abused by a romantic partner may suffer long-lasting repercussions, and this is especially true for girls, a new analysis finds.

Investigators who reviewed 38 studies concluded that teenage dating violence was linked to a higher risk for additional relationship violence in the teen years and even into adulthood.

These unhealthy relationships were also associated with higher long-term risk for substance abuse (drugs and alcohol) and mental health struggles.

“Teen dating violence has been defined as a variety of harmful partner-directed behaviors — including physical, sexual, psychological, cyber violence — that occur within adolescent romantic relationships,” said study lead author Antonio Piolanti.

For the new study, Piolanti and his colleagues looked over studies that collectively focused on the various forms of violent behavior that can occur within a youthful romance. Most of the studies were conducted in the United States. Participants were 13 to 18 years old. More than half the studies tracked participants for more than five years.

Both victims and perpetrators of teen violence were found to have higher odds for post-relationship problems, though risk was greatest among victims. The authors did not seek to quantify that risk, however.

Teens who had experienced relationship violence were found to face a higher risk for more relationship violence going forward, with one-third of the studies finding greater odds among kids who continued to date while still teens.

The findings were published in the journal Pediatrics.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/dating-violence-2659908524.html

Sharing Meals with Friends May Lower Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by News Medical.

Previous research shows that family meals influence mental well-being; however, limited studies have evaluated the relationship between social eating behavior and mental disorders in adolescents.

A recent Clinical Nutrition study investigated the impact of family meals and social eating behavior on anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms in adolescents.

The current cross-sectional study evaluated data from the Eating Healthy and Daily Life Activities (EHDLA) study. The EHDLA study obtained representative samples of adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age from Valle de Ricote, Spain. The study cohort included a total of 649 adolescents, 56.7% of whom were girls.

Mental disorders were evaluated by the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), which considered 21 symptoms that were used to score participants on a four-point Likert-type scale. In this scoring system, zero was defined as "did not apply to me at all," with the gradual escalation in the score indicating an increase in depression, anxiety, and stress.

As compared to family meals, more social eating among friends was strongly associated with reduced anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms in Spanish adolescents. Family meals were also inversely associated with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms.

Social eating behavior is associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms in adolescents and could be due to the protection and support that they receive from family/peers. Sharing a good meal with family and friends also improves communication with peers/family, which has a positive effect on anxiety.

Adolescents who generally eat in the company of their peers have greater peer acceptance, which prevents anxiety symptoms.

Source: News Medical
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230503/Sharing-meals-with-friends-may-lower-depression-anxiety-and-stress-in-teens.aspx

Students with Fewer Friends ‘Copy’ Their Peers to Avoid More Unpopularity

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

In the film “Mean Girls,” Regina George rules the school as the leader of the Plastics. Her best friends follow her every move and agree with everything she says — even if it means belittling themselves. The movie might seem like an exaggeration of high school social life, but researchers in Florida say that there is some truth in this depiction and the lengths people go to make and keep their friends.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University say adolescents with only a few friends are more likely to imitate their peers’ behavior and go along with what they want to do. Making yourself into a carbon copy of your friend seems to help with reducing the risk of getting into arguments and potentially losing the friendship.

Conformity is a dynamic that sees one person having much more influence over another. By mimicking the other person, you’re more likely to get along because of the common similarities. However, you leave yourself open to peer pressure. When it comes to being the influencer or the one under the influence, the most important factor is whether you have fewer friends than your companion.

The researchers tested the hypothesis that, between two friends, having less friends than your pal makes you more prone to imitate their behavior. They observed a class of sixth graders at a Southern California public middle school for a full school year.

Students reported on their own social anxiety and any physical symptoms, like stomach aches that may have come from emotional distress. Students who had fewer friends than their partner were most susceptible to peer pressure. In every scenario, the authors observed they were also the one who acted the most like their companion.

The findings suggest it’s not the total number of friends a child has but whether the child has fewer friends than their partner. This is likely because the one with fewer friends has more to lose if the friendship collapses. They are the ones who would have to put more effort into keeping and maintaining the relationship.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/children-friendship-unpopularity/

Study Finds That Online Learning During COVID-19 was Detrimental to Teen Mental Health, School Satisfaction, Performance

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the social and school world for teens as virtual learning or hybrid learning became the norm in 2020-21. The unprecedented shutdown of classroom learning caused undue stress, low levels of social inclusion, and low satisfaction with school for many—and mental health issues for some, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

"It is clear from this study that certain individuals ended the 2020-21 school year facing more adversity than others," said Drew Cingel, lead author and associate professor of communication at UC Davis. The study was published last month in the journal PLOS ONE.

The study found that teens who were able to attend school in-person reported more sense of inclusion in their social group than those learning online. And despite the traditionally high use in this age group, social media failed to compensate for real, in-person social connections derived from school, researchers suggest.

Youth participating in virtual learning reported feeling less social connection and higher rates of mental health problems, in comparison to their peers who could attend school in-person or in a hybrid model.

Data was collected from 1,256 United States adolescents, ages 14 to 16, to examine how their school context related to feelings of school satisfaction and success, social connection, mental health and media use. The findings suggest that current school interventions may be necessary to help teens recover from the disparities experienced during this unique time, researchers said.

And while the use of social media by teens was reported as more pronounced than before the pandemic, the increased socialization online was perceived both positively and as problematic at the same time.

"Importantly, while adolescent youth are adept and frequent media users, and report using media for social purposes, in this instance in which so much of their in-person social connection was lost, social media and gaming do not appear able to provide a protective mechanism enough to compensate for that loss," researchers said in the study.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-online-covid-detrimental-teen-mental.html

‘Social Exclusion’ is the Most Common Form of School Bullying — Not Violence

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

The stereotypical bully usually threatens smaller classmates with physical violence, but researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia find the most common variety of bullying is actually much more subtle. Their study finds that “relational aggression” bullying is a much more common issue.

This variety of bullying usually involves socially excluding peers from group activities and or spreading harmful rumors. As one can imagine, this type of bullying can wreak havoc on a young psyche, both emotionally and socially.

“Previous studies suggest when a kid is excluded from social activities by their peers at school, the outcomes for that kid both short-term and long-term will be just as detrimental as if they got kicked, punched or slapped every day. So this study sheds light on the social exclusion youth often face,” says Chad Rose, an associate professor in the MU College of Education and Human Development and director of the Mizzou Ed Bully Prevention Lab, in a university release.

Researchers analyzed the results of a survey that had been part of a larger school climate assessment project encompassing 26 middle and high schools across five school districts in the southeastern United States. In all, over 14,000 students either agreed or disagreed with various statements connected to pro-bullying attitudes, perceived popularity, and relational aggression.

“What we found is kids that perceive themselves as socially dominant or popular endorse pro-bullying attitudes, yet they don’t perceive themselves as engaging in relational aggression,” Prof. Rose explains.

“There was another group that did not perceive themselves as socially dominant or popular, but they endorsed pro-bullying attitudes and engaged in relational aggression. So, the first group thought bullying was OK but did not see themselves as engaging in it even if they actually were excluding others. While the second group that admitted to engaging in relational aggression may have been excluding others as an attempt to jockey for the position of being more socially dominant and climb the social hierarchy.”

The study was published in Preventing School Failure Alternative Education for Children and Youth.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/social-exclusion-school-bullying/

Seat Assignments Drive Friendships Among Elementary School Children

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by ScienceDaily.

Most teachers focus on academic considerations when assigning seats. A new study by Florida Atlantic University psychology researchers is the first to show that these classroom seat assignments also have important implications for children's friendships.

Results of the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, revealed that friendships reflect classroom seat assignments. Students sitting next to or nearby one another were more likely to be friends with one another than students seated elsewhere in the classroom. Moreover, longitudinal analyses showed that classroom seating proximity was associated with the formation of new friendships. After seat assignments changed, students were more likely to become friends with newly near-seated classmates than with those who remained or became seated farther away.

"The students in our study spent most of every day with the same 15 or so classmates. By the middle of the school year, there were no unfamiliar peers," said Brett Laursen, Ph.D., senior author and a professor of psychology in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "Yet when seat assignments changed, new seatmates were apt to become new friends, consistent with claims that exposure alone is not a sufficient condition for friendship. Apparently, proximity transcends familiarity by providing new opportunities for the kind of exchanges that form the basis of a friendship."

Participants in the study included 235 students (129 boys, 106 girls) in grades 3 -- 5 (ages 8-11) who nominated friends at two time points (13 -14 weeks apart). Children attended a public primary school in South Florida that reflected public school students in the state in terms of ethnicity and family income.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220628113355.htm

Loneliness Can Begin in Childhood — and Last a Lifetime

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

Loneliness that begins during childhood could have a lasting impact for the rest of a person’s life, a new study warns.

Researchers in Austria found that the odds of being lonely at the age of 50 or older were 1.24 times higher for people who rarely or never had comfortable friends in childhood.

Life circumstances when youngsters are growing up – including having fewer friends and siblings, low-quality relationships with parents, bad health, and growing up in a poorer household – are a link to a higher rate of loneliness later in life, according to the findings.

The research team found that while poor health is the main factor connecting to loneliness in older age, explaining 43.3 percent of the variance in loneliness, social support in older age also accounts for 27 percent of the variance. Personality traits account for 10.4 percent and life circumstances during childhood account for 7.5 percent.

Study authors note that the odds of loneliness at age 50 were 1.34 times higher among those who had a fair or poor relationship with their mother as a child in comparison to those with an excellent maternal relationship. Loneliness was 1.21 times higher when someone grew up in a low-income household.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, confirm the importance of social networks and support in older age, as well as the role of personality traits, and childhood circumstances.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/loneliness-childhood-lifetime/

Popular Kids in School More Likely to be Disruptive and Aggressive

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

t’s cool to be a fool in school, apparently. Research from Florida Atlantic University shows that aggressive, disruptive adolescents often end up becoming quite popular among their peers.

Importantly, researchers explain that being popular and having friends aren’t one in the same. Popular means that everyone knows you, but they may not necessarily consider you a buddy. Study authors posit that certain children prefer popularity over lots of friends. Why? Being popular is considered a major status symbol for an adolescent or teen. While it is certainly true that many popular children are fun and outgoing, others are troublemakers.

The team at FAU performed a longitudinal study to test their hypothesis that disruptive children often start conflicts with their fellow classmates to strengthen their social standing and become more popular. The subsequent results showed that higher initial levels of peer-reported aggression and disruptiveness were indeed associated with an increase in peer-reported popularity during the semester. This was especially true for kids reporting frequent arguments with peers.

A diverse collection of students living in Florida (ages 8-12) took part in this study. All children attended a primary school whose student population mirrored the ethnicity and socioeconomic status profiles of public school students across the entire state.

The study was published in Personality and Individual Differences.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/popularity-children-aggression-disruptive/

Why Can’t We Resist Checking Our Smartphones in the Presence of Others?

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

Mobile phones have become a necessity in the lives of many people, but the addicting devices are also causing lapses in social etiquette, namely the urge to pull out a smartphone in the middle of a conversation with someone.

Why? There’s not an app for that. But there is a study. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology identified three possible reasons people fidget with their smartphones in the presence of others.

The researchers found that one reason many use the phone in front of others is simply to check social media, email, or a text conversation with another person. Interruption like this would normally be considered as rudeness by the person physically present. However, they say that a quick explanation for the pause in conversation before use of the device was deemed as polite and acceptable.

The second reason people use their smartphone is to avoid conversation with another person. A person might whip out their phone to signal that they are busy or pretend they have a call to answer, although the phone is on silent. “The smartphone offers a break from face-to-face social situations,” said study first author Ida Marie Henriksen, a postdoctoral fellow.

Lastly, smartphones are brought out among others to share content, such as pictures or videos. “When you take a selfie together or show pictures of your new girlfriend or kids, or of the house you want to bid on, or the map of where you were on holiday, you’re sharing content,” notes Aksel Tjora, a professor at NTNU.

The findings were published in the journal Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/why-we-check-smartphones/

Study Reveals the Lasting Effects Childhood Trauma Has on Adult Relationships

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on ScienceAlert.

An ongoing study among more than 2,000 adults in the Netherlands has found childhood maltreatment is associated with lower quality relationships later in life.

Past research has also found childhood abuse or neglect can lead to insecure attachment patterns in adulthood, but the current study goes further and suggests these issues arise primarily from severe depression associated with that childhood trauma.

The large cohort has been tracked for nearly a decade already.

Similar to previous findings, the authors found respondents with a history of maltreatment also had more severe depression and anxiety.

These individuals reported lower quality relationships and higher levels of insecure attachment, including anxious attachment – exemplified by extreme levels of intimacy with low levels of autonomy – and avoidant attachment – exemplified by high levels of autonomy and discomfort with intimacy.

The findings largely align with research showing childhood abuse or neglect can have lingering effects on a person's health and wellbeing later in life.

The study was published in Child Abuse & Neglect.

Source: ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/large-9-year-study-reveals-the-lingering-effects-of-childhood-trauma-on-adult-well-being