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A Short And Sweet Study

Think short kids are less popular? That is just a tall tale. A new study published this month in the journal Pediatrics shows that kids' height has no effect on their popularity. "I was quite surprised by this result," David E. Sandberg, the lead author of the study, told TFK. Sandberg said he and his team set up the study to find out whether kids preferred taller classmates as friends. They also wanted to know whether shorter kids were left out of activities.

The study evaluated the attitudes of 956 students in grades six through 12 in a western New York school district. Sandberg said the findings counter the popular idea that taller kids have more friends. "What we found out reflects the folk wisdom that it's what's inside you that counts," said Sandberg, a pediatric psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "Being a good friend is going to determine how well you're liked, more than how tall you are."

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