Trouble Ahead for 'Cool' 13-Year-Olds, Says Science

Listen up, nerdy middle-school students: Stop aspiring to be one of the “cool kids.” New research says they're on a fast track to chaos and maladjustment.

The study, which tracked nearly 200 13-year-olds for a decade, found that those engaging in “pseudomature” behavior — such as shoplifting, vandalism, substance use, sneaking into movies, and conducting “precocious” romances — were more likely to develop issues around drugs and troubled relationships by the time they were in their 20s. They were, in fact, 45 percent more likely to develop substance-abuse problems and 22 percent more likely to be involved in criminal behavior than the less “cool” kids in the study.

According to the relatively small study, published June 11 in the journal Child Development, pseudomature behavior is typical in adolescence. But when it occurs in particularly early adolescence, it can "reflect a misguided overemphasis upon impressing peers" and is "likely to predict long-term adjustment problems.”

Part of the problem stems from the idea that, while those who are pseudomature in middle school were rated as more popular by their peers, they tended to lose their status as those around them grew up and matured. Because of that, notes lead author and University of Virginia psychology professor Joseph P. Allen in a statement, "It appears that while so-called cool teens' behavior might have been linked to early popularity, over time, these teens needed more and more extreme behaviors to try to appear cool."

By 22, they struggled to make friends and appeared less competent than their more straight-and-narrow peers, suggesting that these kids spend so much time trying to gain status, they don’t develop the positive social skills needed for meaningful friendships.

“Teens are intimidated by these kids, and parents are intimidated because they think that these pseudomature kids are on the fast track," Allen tells the Los Angeles Times. "These kids are on the fast track, but it's really to a dead end.”

The researchers are still following the students, now in their late 20s, to see how their lives continue to play out. But the takeaway so far? Geek out, kids. It’s worth it.

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