“I Wish That I Could Be Like The Cool Kids.”

The popular lyrics hit home for many of us. There probably isn’t a teen out there that at some point hasn’t wanted to be part of the cool crowd.  Just about everyone knows who the cool kids are and gossips about what they do.  Of course, what’s cool in your school may not be cool at a different school in another city or part of the country.  For example, a few years back, one teen, Shelby Marie Raye, won a NIDA Addiction Science Award for her research on what makes kids cool.  In her school, sports were in. Honors classes were out. And drugs and alcohol were less cool the older teens got. But if in 10 years you were to take a look back at the cool kids in your middle school— recent research suggests—they may not turn out like you’d expect. Cool and Hot Become Not The researchers studied a group of middle school students and checked in with them for 10 years to track their “coolness.”  What they found out at the start was that, for this group of 13 - 14 year olds, the “cool” kids:  acted older than their age (though their parents and peers did not think they were actually more mature) started dating in middle school experimented with drugs and alcohol got into trouble A recipe for success?  Not so much.  As the “cool kids” entered high school, their popularity faded. By the time they were 22 or 23, their peers actually thought they were LESS cool.  But more importantly, the formerly “cool” kids were more likely than the “uncool” kid...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - Category: Addiction Authors: Source Type: blogs