News, Study: Unusual Names Linked To Male Juvenile Delinquency. (university, kids, family)

[JD59]

Shippensburg, PA (AHN) - Economists at Shippensburg University have linked unusual first names with male juvenile delinquency.

Fisticuffs and other troubled youth behavior are often the result of being given an unpopular name, especially if they come from a disadvantaged home environment and low economic strata.

Study: Unusual Names Linked To Male Juvenile Delinquency | AHN | June 15, 2008 (http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011238174 - broken link)

[Nelly Nomad]

Not buying it. "...Fisticuffs and other troubled youth behavior are often the result of being given an unpopular name...". The result? Really? The authors of this study really believe that kids who fight are fighting over their names? Come on...

Secondly, who gets to define "unusual"? If everyone in the neighborhood has "non-traditional" names (read: "not common English-sounding" names), then no one's name is "unusual", right?

This whole "study" sounds fishy to me.


((sorry about the font, not sure what happened. Hope it's not unreadable...))

[paramour]

"We're arguing it's not the name per se that causes the juvenile to behave badly, but it's the family background."

So once again a news writer has decided to completely downplay actual results of a story and focus on one tidbit of information in order to increase the probability that people will read their article.

Our results show that unpopular names are positively correlated with juvenile delinquencies for both blacks and whites.

Fisticuffs and other troubled youth behavior are often the result of being given an unpopular name, especially if they come from a disadvantaged home environment and low economic strata.

Too bad correlational research does not actually prove anything. You could just as well have read the last quote with only the portion in bold print. Either a poor study or a poorly written article (or both).