NON-DATING TEENS HAVE BETTER SOCIAL SKILLS

A new study from the University of Georgia and published in The Journal of School Health has found that teens who don’t date are happier, less depressed, and better at dealing with a variety of social situations. The study followed a group of Northeast Georgia students as they progressed from sixth to 12th grade. Each spring, students were asked about their dating habits, as well a number of other emotional and social factors such as positive relationships with friends, home life, behavior at school, depression symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. Each student’s teachers were also surveyed, and asked about the child’s social skills, leadership characteristics, and depression symptoms. Here’s what they found:
– Non-dating students had either similar, or better, interpersonal skills than their dating classmates.
– Teachers rated the non-dating students significantly higher than their romance-seeking classmates in terms of social and leadership skills.
– Teachers also rated non-dating students as less depressed. Additionally, far fewer abstinent students reported feeling depressed or hopeless regularly than students who were known to date.
Leaders of the study believe that schools should do more to remind students that choosing not to date is just as healthy and normal as dating.
* Got that, nerds? Suppress those hormones!
* Better social skills, but no dates to use them on. “All skilled up and nowhere to go.”
* This study brought to you by The Abstinence Council, a division of the Boys Have Cooties Coalition.
* How does this study impact teachers who are dating their students?