found that even controlling for the effects of age and pubertal development, gender predicted several small but significant differences: (a) depressive symptoms and negative peer relations predicted increasing levels of reassurance-seeking in female subjects; (b) initial levels of reassurance-seeking predicted deteriorating friendship quality among girls and initial levels of depressive symptoms, which were higher among girls, predicted low friendship stability among all subjects, and (c) "reassurance-seeking combined with poor peer experiences predicted increases in girls' depressive symptoms." Perhaps related to the role of reassurance-seeking, those who both value and experience social acceptance are far less likely to exhibit problem behavior than those who value group membership equally, but are uncertain of their relationship. This relationships is better predicted by self-esteem than the actual quality of the relationships, although also directly related to discordance in personal and peer ratings of status. This effect likely arises cyclically: troubled children are rejected by their peers for their undesirable behavior, while rejected children receive less normative socialization and behave more problematically. Demographic factors Although there are exceptions, demographic factors typically influence adolescent crowd membership even before real cliques begin to form and often influence clique membership more powerfully than personal or behavioral characteristics. Many of the effects on clique composition described below may be largely attributed to crowd segregation. Age Because the contemporary school system divides children by age and structures the majority of most adolescents' time and social exposure, age is the most universal common factor among clique members; notable exceptions include friendships formed in neighborhoods or on the internet and those initiated with early-maturing pubertal girls, all of which are often detrimental to the younger friend. Gender Gender is perhaps the strongest determinant of clique composition in very early puberty. During childhood and early adolescence social segregation between is almost absolute. However, unlike other factors, gender division is temporary. Socioeconomic status Another, less advantageous, powerful determinant of clique formation is socioeconomic class. This trend was first published in the famous "Elmtown's Youth Study", which found that "almost never did adolescents from one social class associate with students from a class that was two ranks higher or lower". A diverse array of follow-up studies have confirmed that class-consciousness steadily increases throughout adolescence, so that by mid-adolescence clique membership across significantly different social backgrounds is highly anomalous. Ethnicity In the United States race remains an even stronger determinant of friendship than socioeconomic status. Like