Changes in behavioral correlates of social status during early adolescence: Does school context matter?

Abstract

This study investigated the role of school context in changes in the behaviors associated with having high social status during early adolescence. Three waves of surveys were collected from students (N = 542, 53% girls; 44% Black, 44% White, 5% Hispanic/Latinx, and 7% other; 60% free/reduced-fee lunch) in the middle of their sixth, seventh, and eighth grade school years. Peer nominations were used to assess two types of social status (peer acceptance and popularity) and three behavioral reputations (academic, prosocial, and physical aggression). Approximately half of the students made a transition from an elementary school to a larger middle school after sixth grade and the other half attended the same school from kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8). Across time and school configurations, students who were well-liked were perceived to be academically oriented, prosocial, and not physically aggressive. In contrast, the reputations of popular students differed in the two school configurations. In the K-8 context, popularity became increasingly associated with academic and prosocial behavior, and less characterized by physical aggression over time. In the transition context, popularity was associated with academic and prosocial behavior in elementary school, but these associations were null upon the transition to middle school in seventh grade. When students moved into eighth grade, popular students were increasingly academically oriented. In the transition group, popularity was also characterized by physical aggression at all three grades. Findings highlighted the significance of school context for the development of popularity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).