Kids who are sick have fewer friends than they think, study finds

Teenagers coping with chronic health problems like asthma or obesity already have it tough. But a new study says they face another obstacle as well: making friends.

Researchers have long known that people who have more friends tend to be healthier. Arizona State University sociologist Steven Haas wondered if the reverse was true as well.

Haas and his research partners found that teenagers were less likely to say they are friends with a fellow student if he or she is sick. That finding was based on surveys administered to 2,060 classmates as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, also known as Add Health.

However, teens who were sick listed just as many friends in the Add Health survey as teens who were healthy. Apparently, they just didn’t realize that their friendships – and overall social networks – were weaker than those of other kids, the researchers explained in a study published in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

“Adolescents in poor health form smaller local networks and occupy less central global positions than their healthy peers,” they reported. In other words, they are less central players in their social networks.

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