News item at the website of Utrecht University (The Netherlands), in which I explain how popular youth set a norm for bullying, but also for positive behavior.

Background article at the website of the Institute for School Safety (Stichting School & Veiligheid, the Netherlands) providing guidelines to teachers on how popular peers can be encouraged to be positive role models.

Item in Quest Magazine (The Netherlands) in which I question whether being defended always helps victims. Of course, defending others is a good thing. But does it always work out as we hope, or may it sometimes cause even more trouble?

An interview in a Dutch newspaper (Financieel Dagblad) in which I tell about the role of friends and other peers in adolescent wellbeing and classroom experiences.

I was interviewed by Quest Psychology about the question why some youth in adolescence are popular and why some are not. My research shows that this depends on the classroom: in some classrooms it is cool to be bossy or a bully, but in other classrooms, this is not done. Thus, popularity should be understood in its context!

Hierarchies are bad! In this interview, together with Mitch Prinstein, I posit that in classrooms where there are strong variations between students in how popular they are, students try to use negative, aggressive behaviors to climb upon the popularity ladder.

Cosmogirl! interviewed me about the struggles that youth may have with their friends, and how these can be fixed.

A nice overview of my work in Jente, a magazine for parents. During adolescence, parent supervision wanes, paving the way for peer influence. Having friends is essential in a developmental period where peers become increasingly prominent - how should parents react to these developmental changes?

"Birds of a feather flock together" is an often-used saying. In adolescence, youth tend to cluster together with peers who are similar to them, and they may even become more similar over time due to peer influence - for better, or for worse. My research shows that classroom norms matter for these friendship selection and influence processes.