Abstract
Previous research has produced inconsistent findings about the relationships between aggressive and prosocial behavior with likeability and popularity. This study utilized latent profile analysis to identify naturally occurring social status profiles with these indicators and to explore their associations with gender, school attended, subjective social status, academic achievement, and wellbeing. The study recruited 818 (aged 12–15 years, 46% girls) Chinese adolescents and revealed four unique social status profiles: high aggressive-low likeability, low social status, average, and high prosocial-high social status groups. A bi-strategic profile did not emerge. The low social status and high aggressive groups exhibited the lowest academic achievement and wellbeing suggesting that more attention should be devoted to these students both in school and in future research.
Highlights
Adolescents are most concerned about their peer social status during their crucial but sensitive middle school years where more complex social interactions occur in school but parental supervision is decreased (LaFontana and Cillessen, 2010)
When comparing the high social status group relative to membership of the aggressive group, the results indicated that the private school students had a higher possibility than the public schools’ students to fall into the high social status group (B = 0.89, p < 0.0001, OR = 2.42), and students with higher self-perceived SES were associated with increased odds of belonging to the prosocial group rather than the aggressive group (B = 0.36, p < 0.05, OR = 1.43)
The current study aimed to identify the naturally existing social status groups in China in early adolescents and to determine whether prosocial and aggressive behavior could co-exist within a social status profile
Summary
Adolescents are most concerned about their peer social status during their crucial but sensitive middle school years where more complex social interactions occur in school but parental supervision is decreased (LaFontana and Cillessen, 2010). As the two types of aggression display significant gender differences (Forbes et al, 2009), the current study used both physical and relational aggression as profile indicators Empirical studies involving both Chinese and Western students tend to reach the same conclusion that prosocial behaviors are positively associated with both likeability and popularity. A unique feature of the current study was to examine how these different profiles relate to gender, school attended, self-perceived SES, academic achievement, and wellbeing in a Chinese middle school context It was anticipated boys would be more likely to fall in the aggressive popular group and that students who have high subjective social status would have a higher chance of being in the prosocial social status group. It was anticipated that students from the prosocial group would have higher levels of academic achievement and wellbeing, but, in contrast, the aggressive group was expected to have a low level of academic performance and wellbeing
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