Prior empirical work has documented that the dynamics of social standing can play a critical role in the perpetration and receipt of aggression during adolescence. Recently, investigators have emphasized the emergence of new, electronic modalities for aggressive acts. Our longitudinal project therefore considered electronic forms of aggression and…

The peer context is a central focus in research on adolescent risk behaviors but few studies have investigated the role of the peer context in the perpetration of adolescent dating violence. This longitudinal study examined between-subjects and within-person contemporaneous and lagged effects of peer attributes, measured with social network…

While much prior research has documented the negative associations between aggression, peer relationships, and social skills, other research has begun to examine whether forms of aggression also may be associated with prosocial skills and increased social status. However, few studies have examined these associations within diverse samples of…

As students transition into middle school they must successfully negotiate a new, larger peer context to attain or maintain high social standing. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which the maintenance, attainment, and loss of a cool status over the course of the sixth grade is associated with student and classroom levels of…

The transition to middle school is considered to be a heightened period for involvement in bullying because the lack of a defined dominance hierarchy is thought to promote jockeying for social positions among students. Accordingly, this study examined bullying in peer ecologies at the beginning of the middle grade years in rural schools that did…

Studies with adults of social dominance orientation (SDO), a preference for inequality among social groups, have found correlations with various prejudices and support for discriminatory practices. This study explores the construct among adolescents at an age when they are beginning to recognize the social groups in their environment, particularly…

Sociometric nominations, social cognitive maps, and self-report questionnaires were completed in consecutive years by 327 students (56% girls) followed longitudinally from grade 7 to grade 8 to examine the stability of social standing in peer groups and correlates of changes in social standing. Social preference, perceived popularity, network…

Peer crowds serve as an identity marker for adolescents, indicating their image and status among peers; but adolescents do not always endorse peer appraisals of crowd affiliation. We report on two studies--one with 924 adolescents in grades 7-12 and a second with a more diverse population of 2,728 students in grades 9-11, followed for 2…

Using a sample of 7,881 African American (915 males and 1,073 females) and White (2,864 males and 3,029 females) adolescents from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined the psychosocial consequences that obese adolescents encounter as they reach young adulthood. Results indicate that obesity…

The goal of the study was to examine whether social motives (social mimicry, mutual attraction, and unreciprocated attraction) predict changes in antisocial behavior across middle school grades. The 2,003 initial participants (55% girls) were drawn from a larger longitudinal study of urban public school students: 44% Latino, 26% African-American,…

This report examines the relationship between status origins and delinquency using an expanded range of status origins indicators together with both self report and official measures. It was found that with few exceptions all four measures of status origins offer extremely low predictive utility regarding delinquent involvement. (Author)

The influence of self-esteem on the use of status considerations as determinants of interpersonal acceptance was studied for 356 male and 366 female Israeli junior high school students. Results suggest that individuals with high self-esteem may be more likely to see themselves as equals to higher status others. (SLD)

The hypothesis that gender differences in adult social status are greater in the kibbutz than in the Israeli urban setting and that this gap is associated with gender differences in global self-esteem among kibbutz youth was supported in studies with 569 kibbutz and urban high school students. (SLD)

Behavioral correlates of social status and the relative importance of physical appearance, reputation, and current behavior in the assignment of social status by peers was assessed in 2 studies of elementary school students (68 and 119 students, respectively). Videotapes and photographs were used to compare popular, rejected, and neglected…

Deviant behavior in adolescence was studied using 1,717 west German adolescent students (51 percent males) aged 12 to 16 years. Questionnaire data were analyzed. Results show that increased rate of delinquency occurs with difficulties connected with integration into the network of academic performance and problems with peer group recognition. (SLD)