Journal article
The Cost of Being Cool: How Adolescent Pseudomature Behavior Maps onto Adult Adjustment
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol.47(5), pp.1007-1021
05/2018
DOI: 10.1007/s10964-017-0743-z
PMID: 28913676
Abstract
During adolescence, one's status among peers is a major concern. Such status is often largely a function of popularity and establishing oneself as “cool.” While there are conventional avenues to achieving status among adolescents, engaging in adult-like, or pseudomature, behaviors such as substance use or sexual activity is a frequent occurrence. Although past research has examined the consequences of adolescent delinquency, what remains unclear is the long-term fate of adolescents who are both popular and antisocial. Using data from a sample of African American males (N = 339) we employ latent class analysis to examine the adult consequences of achieving popularity during adolescence by engaging in pseudomature behavior. Our results identified four classes of adolescents: the conventionals, the pseudomatures, the delinquents, and the detached. The conventionals were low on popularity, pseudomature behavior, and affiliation with deviant peers but high on academic commitment. The pseudomatures were high on popularity, adult-like behavior, and academic commitment but low on affiliation with delinquent peers. The delinquents were low on popularity and school achievement but high on pseudomature behavior and affiliations with delinquent peers. Finally, the detached were low on school commitment, popularity and pseudomature behavior but they report high involvement with a delinquent peer group. By early adulthood, the costs of adolescent adult-like behavior were evident. Early popularity and academic commitment did not portend later social competence or college completion for the pseudomatures. Instead, they frequently experienced an early transition to parenthood, a likely consequence of precocious sexual activity. These findings suggest that interventions should not focus only on the most delinquent adolescents but also need to attend to the pseudomature students who are brimming with promise but are flirting with behaviors that may subvert realization of this potential.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Cost of Being Cool: How Adolescent Pseudomature Behavior Maps onto Adult Adjustment
- Creators
- Leslie Gordon Simons - 0000 0004 1936 738X grid.213876.9 Department of Sociology University of Georgia Athens GA 30602 USATara Sutton - 0000 0004 1936 738X grid.213876.9 Department of Sociology University of Georgia Athens GA 30602 USASarah Shannon - 0000 0004 1936 738X grid.213876.9 Department of Sociology University of Georgia Athens GA 30602 USAMark Berg - 0000 0004 1936 8294 grid.214572.7 Department of Sociology University of Iowa Iowa City IA USAFrederick Gibbons - 0000 0001 0860 4915 grid.63054.34 Department of Psychology University of Connecticut Storrs CT USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol.47(5), pp.1007-1021
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10964-017-0743-z
- PMID
- 28913676
- NLM abbreviation
- J Youth Adolesc
- ISSN
- 0047-2891
- eISSN
- 1573-6601
- Publisher
- Springer US; New York
- Grant note
- MH48165 / National Institute of Mental Health (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000025) 029136-02 / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000030)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2018
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology; Center for Social Science Innovation; Injury Prevention Research Center; Public Policy Center (Archive)
- Record Identifier
- 9983991931902771
Metrics
37 Record Views