Researchers study "Mean Girls" clique trend and solutions

[Shadow 6,697]

The end of the mean girls? Researchers find how cliques form in high school - and say they know how to end them

-Say size of school and choice of course is key to number of cliques

-Schools that offer students more choice are more likely to be rank-ordered, cliquish and segregated by race, age, gender and social status

-Pecking orders, cliques and self-segregation are less prevalent in schools and classrooms that limit social choices and have less interaction

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2829445/The-end-mean-girls-Researchers-cliques-form-high-school-say-know-end-them.html

[Didymus 34,380]

I never had any experiences with powerful cliques and I can see my schools fitting into those categories, so from personal experience I can already agree with this thought.

[Spock 20,292]

I never had this type of problem, but don't those points seem fairly obvious?

[Shadow 6,697]

I never had any experiences with powerful cliques and I can see my schools fitting into those categories, so from personal experience I can already agree with this thought.

Was your school very controlled when it came to dress code and content? So your school didn't have the "in" crowd that others wanted to be apart of? Interesting. I wonder what techniques they use.

[Shadow 6,697]

I never had this type of problem, but don't those points seem fairly obvious?

These points are obvious when one considers how cliques are formed and American public schools tend to have this problem. Where are you from? Do your schools operate differently as well?

[Elizabeth 751]

Based on my personal experiences I agree and disagree. 

 

 

 

Schools that offer students more choice – more elective courses, more ways to complete requirements, a bigger range of potential friends, more freedom to select seats in a classroom – are more likely to be rank-ordered, cliquish and segregated by race, age, gender and social status. By contrast, pecking orders, cliques and self-segregation are less prevalent in schools and classrooms that limit social choices and prescribe formats of interaction. Smaller schools inherently offer a smaller choice of potential friends, so the 'cost' of excluding people from a social group is higher.

There was more of a "mean girls" mentality at the high school I went to that was all girls and had 200 students per year, whereas when I went to a small co-ed school where there was about 70 kids per year that mentality was definitely nowhere near as severe.

     But then demographics play into that too. My all-girls high school was a state school just outside of a fairly big city in England, whereas my other high school was a K-12 private school in a semi-rural suburb in Western Australia, the people at both schools were completely different. My friends from my English school would've hated my Australian school and how the clique system (or lack of) worked there, and most of my friends from my Australian school probably wouldn't have lasted a week in my English school. 

 

 

 

In schools with a strong focus on academics, where teachers have a hand in setting the pace and controlling classroom interactions, teenagers are less likely to form friendships based on social attitudes imported from outside the school.

Not sure I agree with this. The all-girls school I went to had an extremely strong focus on academics, and if anything it encouraged friendships being based on social attitudes, from both within and outside of the school. 

[LORD GAGA 1,271]

I never had any experiences with powerful cliques and I can see my schools fitting into those categories, so from personal experience I can already agree with this thought.

My school had literally a replication of the school in 'mean girls' not even joking

[craig 680]

I was bullied most in grades 5-8 when everyone was streamed together. The bullies weren't a social elite. They were less intelligent boys acting out (bored in class, behaviour problems).

 

In high school I mostly got away from them, because I was Advanced Level and they were either General or Basic. 

[Didymus 34,380]

Was your school very controlled when it came to dress code and content? So your school didn't have the "in" crowd that others wanted to be apart of? Interesting. I wonder what techniques they use.

 

We were free to dress however we liked, but there were still certain powerful rules, for example: girls were not allowed to wear skirts of a certain length, boys were not allowed to wear shorts. Even though the reason for these rules was quite enigmatic, and quite some students rebelled against the idea, I really think it does instill a sense of togetherness among students, maybe even especially because every student was simultaneously exposed to the same stupid rules

 

We had no in crowd at all. Study directions were very strict and we had no clubs or anything like that, everyone was in the same boat, the only difference being your study direction which was, again, very strict and there was zero room to change classes, drop classes or anything like that (the directions being modern languages, Latin/Greek, economics, humanities) which did sort of come with an aura of different values (for example: Latin/Greeks had the reputation of being snobs, humanities was for dumb people) but that wasn't intense and it never caused serious tensions.

 

Of course some people (like me, for instance) were known for being "weird" and not having many friends etc. but that really didn't have anything to do with clique behavior. The people who were awful at socializing and making friends did get stuck in an awful position, but that's unrelated to this subject, I feel.

 

So yeah.. I can really find myself in these results. I never really thought about it, so thanks for sharing.

 

My school had literally a replication of the school in 'mean girls' not even joking

 

I hope you didn't get a hard time in that setting :air:

[LORD GAGA 1,271]

I hope you didn't get a hard time in that setting :air:

 

Lets just say i wasn't one of the popular ones

 

But now... the popular ones in my class are all... for lack of better words... 'Not so popular' now

 

Not that i enjoy that or anything

[Didymus 34,380]

Lets just say i wasn't one of the popular ones

 

But now... the popular ones in my class are all... for lack of better words... 'Not so popular' now

 

Not that i enjoy that or anything

 

Meanwhile you're designing for the top ruling forces in the world.

 

 

Let me enjoy that for you then

 

No, seriously, revenge is silly outside the fantasy of a deranged mind. But still..

 

[ThatSLAYGUY 68]

I was bullied most in grades 5-8 when everyone was streamed together. The bullies weren't a social elite. They were less intelligent boys acting out (bored in class, behaviour problems).

 

In high school I mostly got away from them, because I was Advanced Level and they were either General or Basic. 

 

This is pretty much me.

 

I think when classes are streamed you are put with people who are on the same level as you and there is less bullying 

[uo111 5,282]

I never had any experiences with powerful cliques and I can't see my schools fitting into those categories, so from personal experience I can already disagree with this thought. (plagiarism )

 

Honestly. When people talk about cliques in high school I'm always skeptical because I can honestly say I've never seen one in real life, and my school(s) were far from structured. We could pretty much do whatever.