Jocks, Brains, Populars: Crowds' Effects On You

Chances are, if you attended a public high school in the United States, or in several other Western nations, then you know all about the Brains, the Populars, the Druggies, and the Jocks. They may have had different names in your school, and some groups may have been "cooler" in your school than in another one nearby. But with remarkable consistency across generations, geography, and ethnic groups, these "peer crowds" as they are referred to in the scientific literature, were quite salient features of your high school experience.

Why do Peer Crowds Exist?
It may be no accident that these groups appear in our high schools. Adolescence is a time when a major challenge is to determine your sense of self, or your "identity." In many Westernized cultures, there is an emphasis for this identity development to occur by differentiating oneself from those around you. There are a few important ways that adolescents can be different from one another. Some adolescents rapidly embrace all that their peers say is "cool." Usually, this is exactly the opposite of what adults would like for adolescents to do. So, peers will encourage fun, free time with friends, even rule-breaking and risk-taking behavior. In contrast, adults would like adolescents to study, follow the rules, and behave maturely. It is completely normal for adolescents to shed their parents' values and begin to adopt some independent sense of self. But there is substantial variability in how well adolescents do at this task.

Scientific research (including excellent work by Brad Brown, Ph.D. and others) shows that the adolescents who embrace their peers' values exclusively tend to engage in risk-taking behaviors, perhaps excessively. These are the "druggies," or "potheads," "dirts," or sometimes more colorfully named crowds in school. The adolescents who stay true to the adult prescribed values often are referred to as the "brains," "nerds," or "geeks." In contrast, the "jocks" and the "populars" tend to find a balance between peer and adult values at this stage.

These peer crowds also give adolescents a helpful way to identify who excels most strongly in other central and visible "adolescent" tasks. Adolescence is a time of pubertal development. This means that some adolescents will become physically larger and stronger (Jocks). Some will garner newfound romantic appeal among their peers (Populars). Some will demonstrate superior cognitive development skills and intellectual capacity (Brains), and others will develop sophisticated ways to rebel against the norm (Druggies).

If this all sounds like a synopsis of Grease, The Breakfast Club, Clueless, or High School Musical, depending on your generation, then you are familiar with the ubiquity and importance of peer crowds to adolescent development. These films may offer some exaggeration or comic embellishments, but many of the core messages have been supported by research findings. It is true that Jocks and Populars engage in more aggressive behavior than their peers, particularly the type of aggression that is subtle and helps them maintain their positions on the status hierarchy (see Mean Girls). It also is true that the Druggies tend to use substances and engage in sexual risk behaviors much more frequently than others. Brains indeed get better grades and suffer more victimization from peers.

Do we want adolescents to be in any of these crowds?
Many regions of the country have additional crowds that either are hybrids of these main groups, or capture other issues of more local relevance. The "Emos" have gotten lots of attention lately; they seem to be a mix of the Nonconformists/Hippies/and Grunge folks of the past in some schools, and some clinicians report that nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviors, or concerning emotional displays may be rewarded within this group. In ethnically heterogeneous schools, crowds sometimes capture differences between ethnicities, languages spoken, or intra-ethnic differences. And much research suggests that at least 50% of adolescents do not belong to any specific crowd, but perhaps straddle the lines between two or even three of these high school groups. Hint: to find out what crowd an adolescent is in, don't ask them to tell you what crowd they think they're in. Ask them what crowd their classmates would say they are in. You often will get a different, and more revealing answer.

The Sad Tale of Brains
It's fun to think about peer crowds as a way of understanding adolescents' social experiences in high school. But can information about peer crowds help us learn anything relevant about youths' adjustment? Recent research may have yielded some surprising answers.

Several years ago, a colleague (Annette La Greca, Ph.D.) and I conducted a follow-back study designed to understand the types of early childhood experiences that were associated with different crowd memberships in adolescence. We had information on a large group of adolescents and their current crowds. But we also had information on their social-psychological adjustment from six years prior, when these adolescents were in elementary school. Thus, it was possible to look at adolescents currently in different peer crowds and look back at their childhoods to learn about their pasts.

Many of the results were fairly straightforward. In adolescence, jocks and populars enjoy higher popularity, more self-confidence; druggies experience more behavioral difficulties, etc. The most interesting finding pertained to the Brains and what they were like earlier in their lives, however. In short, the results indicated that these future-Brains had childhoods full of happiness, confidence, and positive adjustment. They were well liked by peers, they reported very few symptoms of depression, and they were very confident, in all domains of self-concept. Their adjustment was quite clearly healthier than all of the other children in elementary school. Without further knowledge, one would have guessed that these children would experience a relatively painless adolescence.

A funny thing happened over time, however. These once happy future-Brains experienced the sharpest decline in adjustment over the six years measured in our study. By adolescence, these youth (each now clearly dubbed a Brain in high school) reported more depressive symptoms, lower self-confidence, and poorer peer relations than any of their peers. Their grade point averages had remained equally elevated compared to others - just like in elementary school - but their peers thought very differently of them, and perhaps, they began to think differently about themselves.

Adolescence Essential Reads

Setting Teens Up for Success

Why Does Time Move Faster as We Get Older?

In elementary school, it is "cool" to be smart. Teachers love the smartest students (research demonstrates that teachers exhibit these preferences in a number of ways), and young children worship their teachers. But by adolescence, it becomes quite "uncool" to be smart. Research by Jaana Juvonen, Ph.D. and her colleagues demonstrates that adolescents even pretend to be less smart with peers, or tell their peers that they "got lucky" when academically achieving well, just to avoid the stigma of seeming invested in one's schoolwork. Somehow, adolescent Brains did not get that memo. They are smart, and don't hide it - at least not well enough to make people think that they are in a different crowd. And there's nothing less cool in adolescence than doing what adults want you to do.

So, the next time you talk to an adolescent, or think about your own teenage years, think a little about the peer crowd experience. It is likely that this is a topic that elicits strong memories, and may have affected the person you are today. It certainly is a topic that many adolescents think about all the time.

(Copyright 2010, Mitch Prinstein).