Abstract
Adolescents’ popularity and popularity goal have been shown to be related to their aggression and alcohol use. As intervention efforts increasingly aim to focus on prosocial alternatives for youth to gain status, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of how popularity and popularity goal are associated with aggression and substance use as well as prosocial behaviors over time. The current study examined the bidirectional associations of aggression (overt and relational aggression), alcohol use, and prosocial behavior with popularity and popularity goal in adolescence across 3 years using cross-lagged panel analyses. Participants were 839 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 13.36, SD = 0.98; 51.3% girls). The results indicated that popularity was consistently positively associated with popularity goal, but popularity goal did not significantly predict subsequent popularity. Popularity positively predicted elevated aggression and alcohol use, but lower levels of prosocial behavior. For the full sample, alcohol use and overt aggression in grade 7 both predicted subsequent popularity in grade 8. However, when considering gender differences, overt aggression no longer was a significant predictor of popularity. These results were discussed in terms of the dynamic interplay between popularity, popularity goal, and behaviors, and in terms of implications for prevention and intervention efforts.
Highlights
A key developmental change in early adolescence is the growing attention for peer relationships (e.g., Brown and Larson 2009)
When youth become more interested in their interactions with peers, they begin to strive more intensely for popularity in the peer group, with popularity goal typically peaking in early adolescence (e.g., Dawes and Xie 2017; LaFontana and Cillessen 2010)
The current study showed that popularity goal was unrelated to prosocial behavior, whereas popularity was negatively associated with prosocial behavior over time
Summary
A key developmental change in early adolescence is the growing attention for peer relationships (e.g., Brown and Larson 2009). When youth become more interested in their interactions with peers, they begin to strive more intensely for popularity in the peer group, with popularity goal typically peaking in early adolescence (e.g., Dawes and Xie 2017; LaFontana and Cillessen 2010). Being popular as well as popularity goal are both concurrently associated with risky behaviors, such as aggression. Popularity and popularity goal may both predict and be reinforced by adolescents’ behaviors (Dumas et al 2017). Youth who are popular or wish to be popular may be more likely to engage in aggression and health-risk behaviors (e.g., drinking alcohol). These behaviors may in turn result in greater popularity or popularity goal, due to peer reinforcement
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