Schadenfreude
patriot and widower
talk about shooting yourself in the foot - some ostracized for good grades
United Press International
Good grades in whites are linked to social acceptance, but in blacks and American Indians, good grades result in a "nerd penalty," U.S. researchers say. University of Michigan developmental psychologist Thomas Fuller-Rowell and co-author Stacey Doan of Boston University analyzed survey responses of more than 13,000 U.S. adolescents from more than 100 schools across the nation.
In black students and for Americans Indians, the higher their grade point average the lonelier they were likely to report feeling -- and the more they reported that others had been unfriendly or disliked them.
Hispanics overall displayed a pattern similar to whites and Asians -- the better their GPA, the more likely that students said they felt accepted and the less likely to report feeling lonely, feeling that others had been unfriendly, or that others disliked them.
The study, published in the journal Child Development, found that overall, Hispanics had similar experiences as whites and Asians, but Mexican students showed patterns similar to those of blacks.
"This analysis did not identify reasons for racial and ethnic differences in the relation between school achievement and a sense of social acceptance," Fuller-Rowell said in a statement. "But it does strongly suggest that racial dynamics within schools are having an important influence on students' lives and should not be ignored."
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