Popular Friends Research Articles

Relative likeability and relative popularity as sources of influence in children's friendships.

The present study contrasts two forms of peer status as sources of friend influence: Relative likeability and relative popularity. Participants included 310 children (142 boys, 168 girls), ages 9 to 12, in stable reciprocated friendships. Peer nominations were collected at two time points, 8 to 14 weeks apart. After removing overlapping variance through residualization, partners in each friend dyad were categorized into roles on the basis of relative (to the partner) popularity and relative (to the partner) likeability. Dyadic analyses compared more- and less-liked friends and more- and less-popular friends in terms of their influence over physical aggression, relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and academic achievement. Higher initial relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and academic achievement among more-liked partners predicted greater increases in the same among less-liked partners, but not the reverse. Unexpectedly, physical aggression among less-liked partners predicted increases in physical aggression among more-liked partners. More popular friends did not influence less popular friends on any of these variables, although (also unexpectedly) less-popular friends influenced the academic achievement of more-popular friends. Taken together, the findings suggest that during the pre- and early adolescent years, relative influence within a friendship tends to be apportioned on the basis of likeability, not popularity.

Friendship selection and influence processes for popularity in early and mid-adolescents.

This study examined the effect of popularity levels on friendship selection and friends' influence on popularity levels in early and mid-adolescence. Participants were 4205 Spanish adolescents (Mage = 13.1 years at Wave 1; 48% girls) belonging to 160 classrooms in two waves. Adolescents were asked about their friendships and the popularity of their classmates. Longitudinal social network analyses showed that adolescents preferred similarly popular peers as friends. High popular classmates were more attractive as friends, particularly in early adolescence. Popular adolescents were more selective in their friendship nominations and adolescents with popular friends became more popular over time. These two effects were only significant in mid-adolescents, although comparative analyses showed a similar tendency at both age groups. This study highlights the importance of popularity levels in adolescents' friendship selection and suggests that popularity, at the individual and group level, plays a relevant role in social development. Implications adapted to the different selection and influence processes in early and mid-adolescence are discussed.

Being Popular or Having Popular Friends, Which Is Better? A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis of Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Adolescents under Major Chronic Stress.

Background: Previous studies have found that adolescents’ depressive symptoms are influenced by social networks in a stressful context, especially focusing on the processes of social selection and social influence. The current study aimed to explore the coevolution of sociometric popularity and depressive symptoms among adolescents suffering from the stress attached to the Chinese gaokao. Methods: The analytical sample comprised 1062 Chinese adolescents who were under significant pressure to return to school for an additional year (returnees) to prepare for college entrance examinations. Students were assessed for depressive symptoms and asked to nominate up to five friends within their classes across four waves (six months). We employed stochastic actor-oriented models to investigate the interdependent relationships between popularity and depressive symptoms. Results: Adolescents’ depressive symptoms negatively predicted future friendship popularity in this stressful situation, but not vice versa. The results of this study also highlighted the importance of friends’ popularity, indicating that adolescents who nominated popular peers as friends tended to subsequently have lower depressive symptoms. Conclusion: These findings suggested that friends’ popularity may serve as a protective factor against depressive symptoms under major chronic stress. Network-based interventions may have practical implications for reducing depressive symptoms under major chronic stress.

Substance use and decision‐making in adolescent best friendship dyads: The role of popularity

AbstractIn adolescent best friendship dyads, we examined: (a) similarity in substance use and decision‐making; (b) associations between participants' decision‐making and their own and best friend's substance use, (c) the influence of relative popularity within the dyad on these associations. Participants (n = 172; 12–18 years) named their best friend, completed popularity ratings, and a substance use questionnaire. Computer tasks were administered to assess risk‐taking and immediate reward preferences. Reciprocated same‐sex best friendship dyads (n = 49) were distinguished on their popularity, and we controlled for age differences between dyads in the analyses. Best friends were similar in substance use and risk‐taking preferences. More popular friends' risk‐taking preferences were positively associated with alcohol use of less popular friends. These findings underscore best friendship similarity in risky behaviors, and the influence of popular friends.

Too Cool for This School by Kristen Tracy (review)

Reviewed by: Too Cool for This School by Kristen Tracy Deborah Stevenson Tracy, Kristen . Too Cool for This School. Delacorte, 2013. [288p]. Library ed. ISBN 978-0-375-98962-9 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-385-74070-8 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-375-89984-3 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-7. Lane has it made: she's got popular friends, a cute possible boyfriend, and the honor of being chosen sixth-grade captain, which is an entrée to a secret world of upperclassmen. Her perfect life hits an obstacle when her same-age cousin, Mint, comes to stay for a month and joins Lane at school. Despite Lane's generosity in explaining all the rules of middle school to Mint, Mint persists in being an individual ("She should have been thankful I was trying to help her"). Though Lane and her friends initially fear that Mint's behavior will sink their own popularity, what happens is even worse: quirky, outgoing Mint eclipses them completely, winning the heart of the boy Lane's best friend adores and the attention of Lane's fellow grade captains. Tracy's snappy, intelligent prose manages the delicate feat of allowing Lane a truthful narration ("I did stuff the way you were supposed to do stuff in order to live a fantastic life") while making clear that her viewpoint is colored by selfishness and jealousy, demonstrating the disastrous effects of the crossroads of anxiety and ego. This is also a particularly fine outing for demonstrating the way mean-girling can swiftly gather speed as Lane manages to rationalize some horrible behavior and, in loyalty to her ousted friend, makes only the feeblest resistance to a plan that would leave Mint with an undeserved criminal record. Lane's perspective makes this an excellent title for language arts use, and it could be a productive entry in a book club for a discussion of perspective and the way we're all the good guys in our own lives. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

The Impact of Peer Social Networks on Adolescent Alcohol Use Initiation

Objective Early adolescent alcohol use is a major public health problem. Drinking before the 14th birthday is associated with a fourfold increase in risk of alcohol dependence in adulthood. The objective of this study is to evaluate the association between adolescent social network characteristics and alcohol initiation prospectively over time. Methods The study analyzes data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative survey of 7th- through 11th-grade students enrolled between 1995 and 1996. Generalized estimating equations are used to model the risk of alcohol use initiation at 1-year follow-up among nondrinkers at wave 1 of the study. Results Both an adolescent’s friends’ alcohol use and the adolescent’s social network characteristics displayed an independent main effect on alcohol initiation. In comparison with abstainers, alcohol initiators had more popular friends as measured by more peer nominations as friends (indegree) and having more friends up to 3 steps removed (3-step reach), and more friends who drank. An adolescent’s risk of alcohol use onset increased 13% (95% CI, 4%–22%) for every additional friend with high indegree, 3% (95% CI, 0.3%–6%) for every additional 10 friends within 3-step reach, and 34% (95% CI, 14%–58%) for each additional friend who drank alcohol, and after controlling for confounders. Conclusion The findings suggest that, in addition to well-established demographic risk factors, adolescents are at heightened risk of alcohol use onset because of their position in the social network in relationship to their friends and the friends of their friends.

What Makes You Think You're so Popular? Self-Evaluation Maintenance and the Subjective Side of the "Friendship Paradox"

We report on a survey of undergraduates at the University of Chicago in which respondents were asked to assess their popularity relative to others. Popularity estimates were related to actual popularity, but we also found strong evidence of self-enhancement in self-other comparisons of popularity. In particular, self-enhancement was stronger for self versus friend comparisons than for self versus typical other comparisons; this is contrary to the reality demonstrated in Feld's friendship paradox and suggests that people are more threatened by the success of friends than of strangers. At the same time, people with relatively popular friends tended to make more self-serving estimates of their own popularity than did people with less popular friends. These results clarify how objective patterns of interpersonal contact work together with cognitive and motivational tendencies to shape perceptions of one's location in the social world.

Friendship Networks of Unpopular, Average, and Popular Children

Existence of friendship and friendship network characteristics were examined among children who differed in popularity status using a relatively unrestricted friendship nomination procedure. Fifth and sixth graders (N=227) completed a rating-scale sociometric to index popularity and provided information on up to 15 good friends. Results indicated that all children reported having at least one unilateral friend. Unpopular children were less likely than popular children to have at least one reciprocal friend, although the large majority (77%) did have a reciprocal friend. Results also indicated that unpopular children's unilateral friendship networks, in comparison to the networks of their more popular peers, contained a greater number of younger school-age friends and fewer same-age friends, more friends located outside of the school but within the same school district, and more unpopular and fewer popular school friends. Unpopular children's reciprocal friendship networks were significantly smaller, were more evenly distributed within and outside of the classroom, and contained fewer average and popular friends as well as friends of the opposite sex. Findings suggest advantages to using an unrestricted friendship nomination instrument and emphasize the need to consider both popularity and friendship when investigating children's peer relationships.