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Molloy, Gest, Feinberg, And Osgood

Decent Essays

Molloy, Gest, Feinberg, and Osgood address questions about adolescent groups composed of the same sex and of different sex, in relation to timing of the group’s formation as well as how different structures correlate with delinquency, alcohol usage, and cigarette smoking, as well as more positive characteristics. The authors acknowledge past studies that show that bi-gendered friend groups emerge with adolescent (Connolly, Furman & Konarski, 2000; Dunphy 1969, etc), but the authors aim to delve into the specifics of different groups and individuals within those groups (2449). Their four topics of interest include: “normative emergence of mixed sex friendship groups,” “ how structural features vary by gender composition,” qualities of adolescents …show more content…

Their first categories of measures are friendship nominations in which students report their friend group, which enabled the researchers to define groups; “group level network measures” were found using an algorithm and refer to the researcher’s ability to define relatively close groups. Additionally, “individual-level network measures” refer to an adolescent’s relevance or “centrality” to the group. Students self reported demographics like race, gender, home background, etc. The researchers also asked the students to report behavioral characteristics, such as “family relations,” “religious attendance,” “delinquency”, in terms of petty crime, and “alcohol and cigarette use”. Finally, the researchers measured means for peer groups on behavioral characteristics. Of course, with self-reporting, there is the chance that students do not accurately report their behavior, especially prudent to this would be reporting of delinquent activity. The researchers analyzed the data, categorizing the groups as “all boys,” “mostly boys,” “mixed-sex,” “mostly girls,” and “all girls.” ANOVAs were used to compare the groups. They then tested the regression between “membership in a mixed-sex group as a function of problem behaviors” as well as the other way …show more content…

In conjunction with research presented in lecture, Molloy, Gest, Feinberg, and Osgood found that single sex groups dropped as age increased, but single sex groups dominated throughout, saying that they aren’t the norm. From personal experience, I would agree with the validity of these findings, as throughout adolescence the majority of my friend groups as small as the ones to which these authors are referring were mostly the same sex. The authors analyzed then the correlation between types of groups and behaviors, finding mix-sex groups to have the highest tendencies towards alcohol and cigarette usage, and almost the same tendency for delinquency as mostly boy groups. Furthermore, the authors found that mixed sex groups correlated with lower grades and less family

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