Posted October dating, Reviewed by Gary Drevitch. In graduate school, students get to immerse themselves in the research and writings that interest them most. University of Georgia doctoral student Brooke Douglas cares about adolescents and their health, including their psychological health. She read dozens of articles about their romantic relationships and discovered urlocalmodelvip onlyfans a number of social scientists had settled on particular ways of thinking about the dating behavior of teenagers.

That they are social misfits? Students who do not date. They asked the students to describe the quality of their friendships and their social relationships at home and at school; they also asked them about their feelings of sadness.

The results were straightforward: In every way, the students who did not date were doing better than "school" students who did date, school just as well. They had better social skills and more leadership skills. They were less likely to be depressed. The students who did not date showed no deficits whatsoever.

The authors analyzed data from high Healthy Teens Longitudinal Study, in which the same students participated every year from sixth grade through twelfth grade. The participants were selected at random from nine middle schools in six school districts in Northeast Georgia.

The students included girls and boys in nearly equal proportions. One of the strengths dating the study is that researchers figured out how the students were doing not just by asking them, but also by asking their teachers. The teachers were not told anything about the dating histories of their students when they evaluated them; they were just asked to report their assessments.

The teachers judged the students who were not dating as doing better than the students who were dating as better off in every way: They rated them highest on social skills and leadership attributes. They also perceived them learn more here less depressed than the students who did date.

When the students reported their own feelings of sadness and hopelessness, again it was the students who did not date who were the least likely to feel so sad or hopeless that they stopped doing some of their usual activities.

The students who did not date did not differ from those who did in their tendency to think about suicide. They also did not differ in their reports of not positive their relationships were with their friends or with people at home or at school. In sum, students who did not date were in some ways no different than those who did. Whenever there was a difference, it favored the students who did not date. There was no way in which the students who did not date did worse — not by their own reports about their lives, and not according to the judgments of their teachers.

Maybe it works in the reverse direction: Students who are socially skilled and less depressed are less likely to date. Or maybe something else causes both — for example, maybe students who prioritize their schoolwork are more likely to be socially high and less likely to date.

Understanding adolescents who do not date is becoming increasingly important. Analyses of 40 years of data showed that the percentage of 12th graders who have never gone on a date has never been higher. The findings from this study put a big dent in the assumption that students who do not date are putting their individual development and well-being at risk. That needs to change. The authors seem to school that these teenagers are just delaying dating.

High school dating: Is it really worth it?

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Tenth graders who don’t date are more socially skilled and less depressed.

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