Most people know the early teenage years are a difficult period. One professor's research explored the role gossip plays in middle schools.

In 1981, Donna Eder, now a professor of sociology at Indiana University, began a study to better understand the sociology of middle schools. She published her findings in the 1995 book "School Talk: Gender and Adolescent Culture."

Eder and three other researchers spent three years at a medium-size school on the outskirts of a Midwestern community.

Eder said gossip can be positive or negative but involves an opinion or judgment of someone.

Her research uncovered that one reason for the middle schoolers' gossip is peer acceptance. "I think that by middle school there is a lot of gossip because the whole process of where you stand in the group becomes pretty salient. Middle school kids really care generally about how others view them. And in middle school, you don't know where you stand because it's so big," she said.

Eder emphasized that popular kids are not the biggest gossips.

"It's not the popular group that's controlling (gossip) because they're actually more likely to make cutting remarks to somebody's face," she explained. "The kids who want to be popular, in a way, gossip more. They gossip about the more popular girls, kind of putting them down, and they gossip about low-status kids to make themselves feel better."

Eder said another reason young teens gossip is because they're insecure and jealous. "There's too many kids (in middle school), and a few kids seem to be getting all the attention," she said. "I had thought popular girls were people who were most liked. But whenever (girls) would talk about a popular girl, they would talk about how much they hated her, or really would show a lot of negative emotion."

Although jealousy and insecurity drive most gossip, it does have other uses. "I think in some ways it's a natural way for a group to kind of try and figure out what their values are, rather than saying very directly, 'We value this; we value that.' Gossip kind of indirectly evaluates others, kind of lets everybody in the group know what the group values," she said.

A key finding was that when someone makes a negative remark in a group setting, if another person doesn't disagree immediately, the gossip will continue.

"We found how hard it is to disagree with people in your group once gossip starts," Eder said. "I think it made me realize people start talking negatively even when they don't feel negatively. People don't like to go against the group."

Eder suggested a way to help decrease gossip, which she has used with her own daughter.

"I think if parents would really support kids and help them just really like themselves for how they look and what their talents are, praise them and affirm them, that kids who are secure in their home might be less insecure in school," she said.

REPORTERS: Paige Thomas, 13; Cakey Worthington, 11; Katie Ciresi, 13.