Psuedo Mature Kids

When you were 12 or 13 years old were you cool, the leader of your middle school class, daring enough to drink a beer and smoke in the school rest room, naughty enough to steal condoms from that convenience store you frequented while you played hooky?  If so, you may be what is called a pseudo mature (middle school aged kids who are so busy trying to act older than their age, they don't mature properly) behavior type. That would be a risk taking, socially precocious cool kid. Problem is, according to a new study, those kinds of kids far more often wind up as dysfunctional adults.

Dr, Joseph Allen, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, says in 'Whatever Happened to the Cool Kids? Long-term Sequelae of Early Adolescent Pseudo mature Behavior', that their pseudo mature behavior set them up for trouble later in life. By the time they are in their early 20s, many of them have had difficulties with intimate relationships, alcohol and marijuana, and even criminal activity. They are doing more extreme things to try to act cool, bragging about drinking three six packs on a Saturday night, and their peers are thinking that they may be a little off. By their 20's many of the nerds are achieving while  the cool middle school type psuedo matures are socially immature and still living in their middle school world.

I was neither a cool kid nor a nerd when I was in middle school. My idea of cool was to not be noticed and not to do what was popular. But I remember the type that professor Allen references. They are the kind who show up at a school reunion 20 years later, still behaving as they did as 12 year olds. Most are socially immature and far more often failures in career and personal relationships than the other kids of the middle school age group. The professor says that in his research he found that  pseudo mature behavior was an even stronger predictor of problems with alcohol and drugs than levels of drug use in early adolescence.

So those pseudo mature kids are so busy chasing popularity, they are missing a critical developmental period and turn out to be like....well Lindsey Lohan and Justine Beiber. Problem is, the study never says what adults, in particular parents and teachers, can do about the pseudo mature kid.  It just suggests that parents can reinforce qualities that will help them withstand the pressure to be too cool, too fast. Good luck with that. I doubt that type of kid will be much impressed with what mom and dad say.

Anyway, do you have a story about yourself or someone you remember in school who was a  pseudo mature kid?