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"  If you were anything like me, your massive, octagonal-shaped purple Walmart glasses (no exaggeration), frizzy hair and garish braces didn&amp;#039;t exactly bring around any pint-sized gentlemen callers. Nope, middle school boyfriends were a hot commodity, and not for the likes of my awkward ass. And although we already know that junior high school dating was a major drama-fest that certainly distracted from our studies (the number of times I comforted a crying friend in the girls&amp;#039; bathroom during class!) those of us whose 14-year-old milkshakes didn&amp;#039;t bring the boys to the yard may be the better for it, according to a new study out of the University of Georgia. UGA&amp;#039;s research, drawn from following a group of 624 students over a seven-year period from sixth to 12th grade, found that kids who began dating in middle school had worse study skills, were four times more likely to drop out of school and reported twice as much alcohol, tobacco and weed use than their single counterparts. Of the kids studied, 38 percent reported dating at each point of the survey, and 22 percent at &amp;quot;high middle school.&amp;quot; Rather amazingly, 100 percent of these kids were dating in sixth grade. (Think about the boys in your sixth grade class. That&amp;#039;s why it&amp;#039;s amazing.) At each point in time, teachers rated the students who were dating as worse academically than those who weren&amp;#039;t. Researchers classify early dating as a component of the same &amp;quot;high-risk behavior&amp;quot; that will later lead these kids to drugs and alcohol at a younger age than others. Researchers also speculate that the subsequent in-class weirdness following a breakup lends itself to poor academics. &amp;quot;Dating a classmate may have the same emotional complications of dating a co-worker. When the couple splits, they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this scenario could be linked to depression and divert attention from studying.&amp;quot; Sadly, it&amp;#039;s safe to say that even for those of us who were single in our middle school years, unrequited crushes certainly diverted our attention from Mr. Delaney&amp;#039;s biology class. (To this day, I blame my C- on my huge crush on the class clown in the back of the room. Damn you, Chuck Burt.) Follow Anna on Twitter: @annabreslaw Image: Brand X Pictures "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a12083/dating-middle-school-bad/>