Boys are "more constant friends" than girls

Whether because of famous teenage movies, such as "lame girls" or gender stereotypes, most people think that girls tend to make friends more than boys.

But a new study found conflicting results, and found that boys tended to form more cohesive friendship groups than girls.

The analysis of social mixed patterns is important in the surveillance of infectious diseases and the development of vaccination plans to combat them, say the researchers.

The researchers found that boys are more likely to mix with their six closest friends over a six-month period.

She also concluded that girls' friendships were more unstable.

The study, published in the journal "Place One", was supervised by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in cooperation with the University of Cambridge.

Scientists use complex mathematical models to track the spread of disease in social groups.

This research may help predict more precisely how the disease spreads, and may one day lead to changes in guidelines for the control of infectious diseases.

Researchers asked 460 grade seven students from four different high schools in the United Kingdom, representing a wide range of social and economic backgrounds, to determine the six closest friends with whom the boy or girl spends the next year. most of the day. June 2015.

Adam Kucharsky, supervisor of the study, said: "It is socially interesting to note that boys tend to form more cohesive friendships than girls, contrary to gender stereotypes, but to the designers of sports models. This type of information is valuable

"Understanding age socialization patterns is an essential part of studying epidemics of infectious diseases such as influenza and measles, which can occur spread quickly, especially among children, "he said.

"Mathematical models predicting the rapid spread of the disease are now an essential part of public health decisions for plans to introduce new vaccines," he said. "Children play a very important role in monitoring the spread of the disease," said Claire Winham, a researcher and former School of Health Policy Unit at the London School of Economics.

"Previous studies have only identified how children are mixed during a single day, so we wanted to see how that has changed over time," she said.

"It would also be useful to extend the study to cover a longer period of monitoring of how friendship groups have evolved over the years," she said. declared. "It has been noted that boys 'friendships are more stable while girls' friendships are more unstable," said Terry Abter, an expert in psychiatry and a former school of the University of Cambridge, who has written extensively about teens and friendships. "As a result, girls may feel more pressure to make friends only if they are separated from their closest friends and feel more social pressure to be friendly with people who are not really their friends."

"All of this leads to a larger and more changeable friendship group."