Researchers found that boys are potentially more “cliquey” than girls when it comes to forming adolescent friend groups, according to a study published by PLOS One journal Wednesday.
A study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Cambridge researched social groups among adolescents in order to acquire more information about the spread of infectious diseases, according to the Daily Mail. Researchers determined that males tend to form more tightly knit friend groups compared to their female counterparts.
The group of researchers used 460 year seven participants from four different secondary schools and conducted the research between January and June 2015, according to the BBC. (RELATED: Study: Parents More Likely To Choose Spouse For Daughter Based On Wealth Over Physical Attractiveness)
“Showing boys are potentially more cliquey than girls, perhaps going against gender stereotypes, and that popular children remain popular over time, is an interesting social insight but for mathematical modellers this type of information is also extremely valuable,” said Dr. Adam Kucharski, the study’s lead author from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, according to the Daily Mail.
“Understanding age-specific social mixing patterns is vital for studying outbreaks of infectious diseases like flu and measles which can spread rapidly, particularly among children,” Kucharski added.
Previous studies focused on the interaction between children over a one day period compared to a longer period of time, said Claire Wenham, a study author and assistant professor in global health policy at London School of Economics, the BBC reported.
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