So-lled 'mischievo rponrs' thk ’s funny to intify as gay or lbian on surveys—and then give exaggerated rpons to qutns about substance e or eatg habs.
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THE TEENAGE TROLLS ARE PRETENDG TO BE LGBT, AND SCREWG UP SCIENTIFIC STUDIFACE ITSO-LLED 'MISCHIEVO RPONRS' THK ’S FUNNY TO INTIFY AS GAY OR LBIAN ON SURVEYS—AND THEN GIVE EXAGGERATED RPONS TO QUTNS ABOUT SUBSTANCE E OR EATG HABS.SAMANTHA ALLENPUBLISHED DEC. 10, 2018 5:12AM EST GETTYSCIENTISTS STUDYG LGBT YOUTH MAY HAVE A BIG PROBLEM ON THEIR HANDS: MEDDLG KIDS. MORE SPECIFILLY, MEDDLG KIDS WHO THK ’S FUNNY TO INTIFY AS GAY OR LBIAN ON SURVEYS—AND WHO THEN GIVE EXAGGERATED RPONS TO OTHER QUTNS ABOUT, SAY, SUBSTANCE E OR EATG HABS. THAT PHENOMENON, TURN, ULD BE FLATG CERTA TIMATED HEALTH DISPARI BETWEEN LGBT YOUTH AND THEIR PEERS.NYU ENOMICS PROFSOR JOSEPH R. CIMPIAN, WHOSE NEW STUDY THE AMERIN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH EXPLOR THIS EMERGG PROBLEM, SAID THAT HE WAS TIPPED OFF TO S POTENTIAL SLE WHEN HE NOTICED HOW EQUENTLY THE OSTENSIBLY GAY KIDS ON ONE SURVEY REPORTED BEG BLD—WAY BEYOND WHAT WOULD BE EXPECTED. “WHAT WE FOUND IS THAT ‘GAY’ KIDS ARE WAY MORE LIKELY TO BE BLD AND TO BE AF AND TO HAVE THREE OR MORE CHILDREN OF THEIR OWN AND ALL SORTS OF THGS,” HE TOLD THE DAILY BEAST. “WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE DATA, YOU THK, ‘THIS IS RIDICULO!’” THERE WAS ONLY ONE NCLN: “CLEARLY THE KIDS ARE MSG WH .” FOR THEIR NEW STUDY, CIMPIAN AND HIS TEAM LOOKED AT DATA OM THE CDC’S 2015 YOUTH RISK BEHAVR SURVEY, WHICH IS ADMISTERED TO HIGH-SCHOOLERS, LOOKG ONLY AT JURISDICTNS WHERE THE YRBS ASKED ABOUT SEXUAL ORIENTATN.THEN, THROUGH A SOPHISTITED STATISTIL ANALYSIS THAT REQUIRED IMMENSE PUTG POWER AND MACHE-LEARNG TECHNIQU, THE REARCHERS WERE ABLE TO FD MANY OF THE SO-LLED “MISCHIEVO RPONRS” THE DATA SET.THE SIMPLT WAY TO SCRIBE THEIR METHOD IS THAT THEY INTIFIED—AND THEN WEED OUT—YOUTH WHO SAID THEY WERE “GAY” BUT WHO ALSO SAID THAT THEY WERE PRETERNATURALLY TALL AND ATE RROTS FOUR OR MORE TIM A DAY EVERY SGLE DAY. THAT’S THE SORT OF MISCHIEF THAT REQUIR YOU TO “GET TO THE MDSET OF WHO THAT TYPE OF KID MIGHT BE,” SAYS CIMPIAN, AND IMAGE WHAT THEY FD HUMORO. CARROTS SEEM TO BE A FAVORE. “WE DO KNOW THAT WE N GET VERY DIFFERENT RPONS PARTICULARLY FOR HIGH-RISK, LOW-EQUENCY KD OF OUT. THGS LIKE EXCSIVE DG E AND EXCSIVE ALHOL E” “THAT’S A PRETTY TEMPTG RPONSE OPTN, WE FD, FOR THE MISCHIEVO RPONRS,” CIMPIAN SAYS.AND ALTHOUGH CIMPIAN READILY ADMS THAT NYU PROFSORS “MAY NOT NECSARILY BE THE BT AT FIGURG OUT WHAT KIDS ARE GOG TO THK IS FUNNY,” THE DATA OFFERS STRONG CLU.“WE DO KNOW THAT WE N GET VERY DIFFERENT RPONS PARTICULARLY FOR HIGH-RISK, LOW-EQUENCY KD OF OUT,” HE SAID. “THGS LIKE EXCSIVE DG E AND EXCSIVE ALHOL E.”WHEN THERE ARE A LARGE NUMBER OF “MISCHIEVO RPONRS,” ALL THOSE LI ABOUT DG AND ALHOL E N ADD UP. AS CIMPIAN REPORTS THE STUDY, REMOVG THE “MISCHIEVO RPONRS” HAD A SIGNIFINT IMPACT ON “OVERALL TIMAT OF LGBQ-HETEROSEXUAL YOUTH DISPARI, PECIALLY AMONG MALE YOUTHS” BUT ONLY CERTA AREAS. (THE 2015 YRBS DID NOT ASK ABOUT TRANSGENR STAT, HENCE THE ABSENCE OF THE “T” THE ACRONYM.)“DG- AND ALHOL-E DISPARI WERE AMONG THOSE MOST AFFECTED BY SPECT DATA, WHEREAS DISPARY TIMAT FOR BEG BULLIED, FEELG SAD OR HOPELS, AND THKG ABOUT SUICI WERE NOT NOTICEABLY AFFECTED BY SPECT S,” THE STUDY NOT.WHAT WE LEARN OM THAT FDG IS THAT “MISCHIEVO RPONRS” THK SOME RPONS ARE FUNNY BUT NOT OTHERS. FOR EXAMPLE, A 12-YEAR-OLD SAYG THAT HE HAS ED HERO OVER 40 TIM HAS A CERTA PANACHE TO PARED TO, SAY, DISCLOSG SUICIDAL IATN. BUT THAT ULD HAVE THE EFFECT OF MAKG SEEM LIKE GAY AND BISEXUAL BOYS ARE ABG SUBSTANC AT MUCH HIGHER RAT THAN THEY ACTUALLY DO.“I THK THAT [MY STUDY] SUGGTS THAT THE DISPARI ARE, PARTICULARLY AMONG MAL, NOT AS BIG AS THE LERATURE PREVLY WOULD HAVE SUGGTED,” CIMPIAN TOLD THE DAILY BEAST. “AND SOME OF THOSE DISPARI ACTUALLY DIMISH TO BASILLY NOTHG. THEY’RE FELY NOT STATISTILLY SIGNIFINT MANY S—BUT, NOT ONLY THAT, THE ACTUAL DIFFERENC ARE VIRTUALLY NOTHG.”FOR EXAMPLE, DIFFERENC E AND ECSTASY E FELL DRAMATILLY AS THE “MISCHIEVO RPONRS” WERE SIFTED OUT OF THE YRBS DATA. EVEN BY REMOVG THE 10 PERCENT OF RPONRS WHO "PROVID THE MOST UNUAL PATTERNS OF RPONS," DISPARI BETWEEN STRAIGHT AND GAY OR BISEXUAL BOYS CREASED BY AN AVERAGE OF 28 PERCENT, THE STUDY NOT.CHANG AMONG THE GIRLS, HOWEVER, WERE NOWHERE NEAR AS LARGE—“MISCHIEVO RPONDG ISN’T AS PREVALENT OF A PHENOMENON AMONG FEMAL,” SAYS CIMPIAN—AND THE DISPARI AROUND THGS LIKE SUICIDAL IATN AND BULLYG REMAED SIGNIFINT ACROSS BOTH GENRS.IN THAT SENSE, CIMPIAN’S STUDY UNRSR THE STATISTIL STRENGTH OF THE LGBT MENTAL HEALTH DISPARY AMONG YOUTH. EVEN WHEN YOU REMOVE THE MEDDLG KIDS, STILL STANDS.“IT ACTUALLY SHOWS THAT THAT’S A VERY ROBT FDG,” CIMPIAN EXPLAED.STILL, THE IMPACT OF MISCHIEVO RPONRS ON THE SUBSTANCE E DATA IS A POTENTIAL PROBLEM, PECIALLY NSIRG THAT THE CDC THE DATA TO FORMULATE PUBLIC POLICY. UNFORTUNATELY, CIMPIAN SAYS, MISCHIEVO RPONDG IS HARD TO INTIFY—AND PERHAPS EVEN MORE CHALLENGG TO PREVENT.CIMPIAN TOLD THE DAILY BEAST THAT HE’S CURRENTLY NNG FOLLOW-UP ANALYS ON A SUPERPUTER. THAT’S THE LEVEL OF TECHNIL POWER REQUIRED TO GO THROUGH A LARGE DATA SET AND FILTER OUT THE EFFECTS OF PROBABLE MISCHIEVO RPONDG. DOG THAT BY HAND—OR EVEN ON LS SOPHISTITED TECHNOLOGY—WOULD BE CREDIBLY LABOR.“NOW WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO B THROUGH DATA WAYS THAT WE AS HUMANS WOULDN’T WANT TO GO THROUGH,” SAYS CIMPIAN. “MISCHIEVO RPONRS ARE KD OF DIFFICULT TO STUDY. WHEN YOU TRY TO STUDY SOMETHG, YOU ACTUALLY ALTER BY MEASURG , SO IF SOMEBODY KNOWS THAT THEY’RE GOG TO BE DISVERED AS A MISCHIEVO RPONR, THEY MAY NOT ACTUALLY REVEAL THEIR MISCHIEVO RPONDG TENNCI” GIVEN HOW ANNOYG IS TO WEED OUT MISCHIEVO RPONDG AFTER THE FACT, ONE MIGHT THK THAT REARCHERS WOULD WANT TO FD WAYS TO STOP BEFORE HAPPENS. THEY DO. BUT TECHNIQU HAVE NOT BEEN STUDIED. AND MISCHIEF, SEEMS, IS FAMOLY IRREPRSIBLE.“WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO DISURAGE ,” CIMPIAN ADMS. “MISCHIEVO RPONRS ARE KD OF DIFFICULT TO STUDY. WHEN YOU TRY TO STUDY SOMETHG, YOU ACTUALLY ALTER BY MEASURG , SO IF SOMEBODY KNOWS THAT THEY’RE GOG TO BE DISVERED AS A MISCHIEVO RPONR, THEY MAY NOT ACTUALLY REVEAL THEIR MISCHIEVO RPONDG TENNCI.”EVEN CHANGG SURVEYS TO LIM MISCHIEVO RPONDG MAY ONLY MASK THE PROBLEM.SEVERAL YEARS AGO, FOR EXAMPLE, LLEAGU OF CIMPIAN’S MA THE MISTAKE OF HAVG WRE- OPTNS FOR HEIGHT AND WEIGHT, WHICH HAD AN OBV RULT: “SOME KIDS WERE SAYG THAT THEY WERE 10,000 FEET TALL OR THAT THEY WEIGHED 666 POUNDS.” SO, THEY MA A DROP-DOWN MENU STEAD—BUT THEN THE “MISCHIEVO RPONRS” JT SELECTED THE HIGHT AND LOWT POSSIBLE HEIGHTS, LIKE 7’11” AND 4’0”. THAT MEANS THE “MISCHIEVO RPONRS” WILL JT GET LUMPED WH THE KIDS WHO ARE ACTUALLY AT THE EXTREM.TRYG TO STOP MISCHIEVO RPONDG, THEN, MIGHT BE MORE CHALLENGG THAN G A SUPERPUTER. THE ALLURE OF PICTG YOURSELF AS A 10,000-FOOT-TALL, RROT-CHOMPG, GAY E ADDICT MAY, FOR SOME YOUTH, BE TOO GREAT TO RIST. IF CIMPIAN’S BEG PLETELY HONT, SOME OF THE GROWN-UPS WHO HAVE LOOKED AT THIS PROBLEM MIGHT HAVE DONE THE SAME THG WHEN THEY WERE YOUNGER.“A LOT OF TIM WHEN I EVEN TALK TO FELLOW FACULTY MEMBERS ABOUT THIS, THEY SAY THGS LIKE, ‘OH, I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE KID THAT YOU WOULD LL A MISCHIEVO RPONR,’” SAYS CIMPIAN. SAMANTHA ALLEN
More specifilly, meddlg kids who thk ’s funny to intify as gay or lbian on surveys—and who then give exaggerated rpons to other qutns about, say, substance e or eatg habs. Cimpian, whose new study the Amerin Journal of Public Health explor this emergg problem, said that he was tipped off to s potential sle when he noticed how equently the ostensibly gay kids on one survey reported beg bld—way beyond what would be expected.
“What we found is that ‘gay’ kids are way more likely to be bld and to be af and to have three or more children of their own and all sorts of thgs, ” he told The Daily Beast. ”For their new study, Cimpian and his team looked at data om the CDC’s 2015 Youth Risk Behavr Survey, which is admistered to high-schoolers, lookg only at jurisdictns where the YRBS asked about sexual, through a sophistited statistil analysis that required immense putg power and mache-learng techniqu, the rearchers were able to fd many of the so-lled “mischievo rponrs” the data simplt way to scribe their method is that they intified—and then weed out—youth who said they were “gay” but who also said that they were preternaturally tall and ate rrots four or more tim a day every sgle day.
But that uld have the effect of makg seem like gay and bisexual boys are abg substanc at much higher rat than they actually do.