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Report on Cliques and Friend Groups: YOUR Experiences
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
It's pretty hard to make it through school without running into some sort of friend group or clique. Whether we see them or we're in them, chances are, they're there and they affect lots of social interactions! We posted this survey in January to find out what you guys think about this and what your experiences have been.
To start things out, let's break some of our data down! Who took this survey?
275 people, to be precise: 261 girls, 6 boys and 8 who didn't identify.
Ages ranged from 9 to over 22, but most of you were between the ages of 11 and 14.
We had 115 oldest children, followed by 77 youngest, 38 middle and 34 onlys.
You all came from many different backgrounds and descents: African (24), Asian (27), European (101), Latin American (19), Middle Eastern (3), Native American (6), Oceania/Pacific Islander (3), and multiracial (24).
And you came from many different countries, 31 to be exact. These included but were not limited to: Taiwan, Jamaica, New Zealand, Fiji, Vietnam, Singapore, Spain, Ghana, South Africa and Norway.
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It made sense to begin our look at friend groups and cliques with a little investigation into your friendships. Everyone has different preferences when it comes to their friendships, so what are yours? We learned that, for the most part, SmartGirls don't really participate in certain types of friendships a lot more than others. Some of you guys have several small groups of friends (25.46%), while others (23.98%) have one small group of friends. Still more belong to several large groups of friends (21.77%) or just one large group (15.50%). However, a smaller percentage (13.28%) tend to have friendships with individual people and wouldn't say that they're part of a group of friends.
That means that about 87% of you describe yourselves as members of a friend group. How are the dynamics within that group? According to our results, you guys are pretty likely to be closer to certain friends within the group than others - 73.45% of you say that's how it goes for you. A much smaller 18% said you are close with everyone within the group, and the smallest - 2% - indicated you're not really close with anyone within the group. So that's how your friendships actually play out, but what would be ideal?
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| I would rather... |
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count | percent |
prefer2
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| Have one group of friends |
87 | 31.64 |
| Have multiple groups of friends |
136 | 49.45 |
| Have individual friendships |
52 | 18.91 |
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| This table shows that more of you would rather have multiple friend groups rather than either just one group of friends or individual friendships, but no friend groups. |
Let's zoom in a little bit, shall we? How are things going within your own friend group or groups? Within groups, it's often interesting to consider people's roles because when we get into them - whether they're friend groups or groups to work on a project at school - we usually assume a certain task or responsibility. Who are you within your friend group(s)?
35 of you said you're the listener.
32 of you said you're the leader.
31 of you described yourselves as the advice-givers.
16 of you called yourselves the fashionistas, saying you're the one who gives tips on clothes, hair styles, makeup, etc.
13 of you said you're the mediator (the person who works out conflicts between others) and 13 others described yourselves as the homework-helpers.
9 of you see yourselves as the organizers - you're the ones making the plans for hanging out.
8 of you play the role of matchmaker - setting up your friends with their crushes.
Only 4 of you called yourselves the troublemakers.
Beyond those specific responses, 73 of you said you don't feel like you have a certain role at all, while 14 of you said you fill ALL of those roles.
It's possible to imagine that some roles probably have (or try to have) more control or influence within a group than others. I mean, lots of movies are made about that very scenario! Do you find that to be true within your group(s)?
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| How well do you agree with the following statement? "In my friend group, there are some friends who have more control or influence than others." |
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| Note that in this graph, "str_agree" means "I strongly agree" and "str_dis" means "I strongly disagree." |
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Based on that nifty bar graph, it looks like a good number of you feel like some friends have more control or influence with your friend group(s) than others. And we all know that sometimes that causes problems, like fights or arguments. But there are lots of reasons that arguments and fights occur between friends - probably too many to name - so we asked how often they occur. We learned that there isn't really a trend here. Some of your groups argue just a few times a year, while others argue a few times a week or even every day!
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Some arguments are quickly resolved, but others can cause even bigger problems and can cause a friend group to split up. Has that ever happened to you?
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| Have you ever been part of a friend group that split up? |
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| The majority of you said you kind of have been - indicating that some of you are still friends with each other, while others aren't. |
Wow. Only 16% of you haven't been part of a friend group that eventually, in some form, went separate ways. What has caused these splits? A few of you describe what happened:
"Gossip and people outgrowing each other."
"A love triangle!"
"Moving to junior high."
"One of us kissed a friend's boyfriend! Boy, did that cause conflict!"
"Different beliefs."
"Some friends going down a way that I didn't want to. Like, sometimes they skipped classes and got way involved in boys."
We got many different answers when we asked you to tell us what happened to cause the split, but those were some of the most common types.
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Just like people have names, when people form groups, those groups tend to have a name or label too. It's our human instinct to categorize things that helps us make sense of the world we're navigating. But sometimes labels create stereotypes - like someone may say that everyone in that one group likes Hannah Montana, just because a few people in the group are wearing Hannah Montana shirts. But there could be people in the group who don't like Hannah Montana at all! Do you think this happens with friend groups a lot?
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| How much do you agree with this statement? "I think people get stereotyped or labeled based on who they are friends with." |
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| Again, "str_agree" means "I strongly agree" and "str_disagree" means "I strongly disagree." |
The majority of you believe that people get stereotyped or labeled based on who they are friends with. If you believe that's true in general, how do you see it applied to yourself and your own group of friends? We asked you how your friend group is labeled at your school, and we learned that a fair number of you (124) aren't sure if people label you at all, while others (31) feel certain that your group has one specific label (i.e. "the athletes") that everyone knows you by. Still others (96) think you get labeled but that people attach different labels to you.
So if you are getting labeled, how do you guys feel about it? Does your group love it or hate it? Or do you just not care? The biggest number of you (145) said you don't really care if people label you or not, while 28 told us you reject the labels and don't think they're true and 14 told us the labels are totally accurate and you love them.
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How do those labels get assigned? We learned that in most of your schools, labels get assigned by interest (like an interest in books, an interest in shopping, etc.) and physical appearance most often, though those aren't the only ways. Others include by ability (like the ability to play sports, the ability to play an instrument, etc.), age, ethnicity and religion. And what do you think of those labels? Do they help or hinder? You told us what you think about labels:
50% of you said, "I think labels are unhelpful because they keep people from becoming friends with others who are different from them."
41.73% said, "I think labels are silly but they don't do much harm."
And 8.27% told us, "I think labels are useful because they help you meet and become friends with people you'll get along with the best."
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The word clique gets thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean? Where does a friend group stop and a clique begin? We asked you guys to define "clique" for us, and here are some of your responses:
"An exclusive group of individuals, who are unwilling to let others join."
"A group of people with the same likes and interests."
"Just some people that think they have things in common and they really don't - they are just based on looks and money."
"A clique is a close group of friends that might be reluctant to let others in - either because they feel superior or intimidated."
"People acting not themselves."
"A clique is an elite group of people that only hang out with each other and have total control over the school and are the most popular and all eyes and attention are always on them."
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As you can see, many of the definitions contained a similar element - a close group of friends. So how does your friend group measure up? Do you think you're a clique?
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| Would you describe your friend group(s) as a clique(s)? |
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| A little less 50% of you told us you wouldn't describe your friend group as a clique. |
| Do you think other people at your school would describe your friend group(s) as a clique(s)? |
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| Try comparing these results to the graph above! |
You may be in one, you may not be, but how common are they? We asked, "How common are cliques at your school?" According to 101 of you, they are very common at your school - you have many cliques. For 115 of you, they exist but there aren't too many. Twenty-two of you told us there's one main clique but that's about it, and 29 of you said that you don't really have any cliques at your school.
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But cliques aren't just at school! They're on TV, in movies, in books that we read. For goodness sake, there's even a series called "The Clique." We wondered if you thought these representations of cliques in the media are accurate, based on your experiences and what you see in your everyday life. We learned that the largest number of you think these depictions are somewhat accurate, but not entirely. Another significant amount of you believe these depictions aren't very accurate. Fewer of you find them very accurate or not accurate at all.
So based on what you see at school and in the media, what's your final verdict on cliques? Would you want to be in one? Check out our last graph to find out how you guys feel:
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| Would you want to be part of a clique? |
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| While 102 of you do not to be in a clique, 166 of you showed some interest - whether you know you want to be in one or you already are! |
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2007.
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