#Being13: Inside the Secret World of Teens
Partnering again with Anderson Cooper 360°, Marion Underwood and I conducted a study of how 13 year olds use social media and how involvement with social media related to their social psychological adjustment.
Bullying: It Stops Here
Diane Felmlee and I partnered with CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° to engage in a systematic social network analysis of school bullying and aggression.
Towards the Fear
In 2014, playwright and NYU drama professor Joe Salvatore wrote a play inspired by my research with Diane that included portrayals of each of us, as well as an interpretive “dance in the data” movement piece depicting our regression results. Apparently I sound like Bill Walton and negative binomial models can be graceful.

A Brave Heart
Appeared in A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story
Other Media Coverage
Emily Bazelon, author of Sticks and Stones:
“One pice of research in particular helped me understand why kids bully—how that can be a rational, if unfortunate, choice. Robert Faris at U.C. Davis mapped social networks in a few different high schools, and he showed that kids behaving aggressively—not physically, but socially—use gossip, exclusion, and attacks on other kids’ reputations to help themselves move up the social ladder. It turned out that for most kids, it didn’t work, in terms of increasing status, to attack someone much weaker. But if you picked on someone near you in the social hierarchy who was a possible rival, that often had a social benefit. It is sort of depressing but important to understand, I think. People ask: Why do kids act this way? But kids are doing what anyone would do: maximizing their social influence.”
Salon, “The 8 Traits that can help you identify a psychopath, according to the experts.”
Salon, “Bullies aren’t all sociopaths, most are just trying to climb the social ladder”
Big Think, “New Research Shows that Bullies are Often Friends“
Forbes, “Tell-Tale Signs of a Toxic Friendship“
KSRO “New Study Shows Teens More Likely To Be Bullied By Their Social Circles“
Psychology Today, “Transforming Rejection“
Science Daily, “Most teen bullying occurs among peers climbing the social ladder“
The Washington Post, Monica Leftwich. “Are You Raising an Internet Bully?”
Slate, “The Harder They Fall.”
The Atlantic, “Why it Pays to Be a Jerk.”
Harpers Monthly, “Findings,”
The New York Times, KJ Delatonia. “What Works to End Bullying?.”
The New York Times, “Web of Popularity, Achieved by Bullying.” reprinted in The Seattle Times and The Worcester Telegram.
The Atlantic, “The Most Popular Kids Are Like Benign Dictators“
The Wall Street Journal, “Bullying: Not Just for the Maladjusted!” Christopher Shea
The Washington Post, “ Most, least popular kids least likely to bully, study says.” Valerie Strauss
Los Angeles Times, Eryn Brown, “ Study Links Teenage Bullying to Social Status .” Reprinted in Chicago Tribune, The Boston Herald, The Baltimore Sun, and The Arizona Republic
ABC News, Katie Moisse, “Bullied Teen is Driven to Succeed.”
Time. “Why Kids Bully: Because They’re Popular.” Belinda Luscombe.
CNN. “Kids and Aggression: Popularity Matters.” Elizabeth Landau.
The Atlantic, Elspeth Reeve. “ The Most Popular Kids are like Benign Dictators .”
US News and World Report, “ Bullying May Accompany Drive to be Popular.” Jenifer Goodwin, reprinted in Newsday and Bloomberg Businessweek