Despite its omnipresence, quantitative research examining both the nature and the function of adolescent gossip has been limited. The present study aimed to address this limitation in the literature by examining the nature and function of adolescent gossip; in particular, it aimed to explore observed differences between the gossip of those popular…

The present study examines the reciprocal associations between cyberbullying behavior and young adolescents' social status. For this purpose, a two-wave panel study with an 8-month time interval was conducted among an entire grade of 154 secondary school pupils (age 12-14). The survey featured items on traditional bullying and cyberbullying as…

This study examined the behavioral, personality, and communicative predictors of acceptance and popularity in 608 early adolescents. Data were collected with sociometric methods and ratings in 30 sixth-grade classrooms. Hierarchical regressions were run to predict acceptance and popularity from prosocial, antisocial, and withdrawn behavior,…

The purpose of this study was to identify and validate subtypes of peer status by integrating preference and popularity into a single framework. Person-oriented analyses were performed among 3,630 children and adolescents of different cohorts in primary and secondary education. In the young age groups (Grade 3/4 to Grade 7), three clusters were…

Because the mechanism of harm used in social aggression generally involves the manipulation of peer relationships, it is important to consider its social correlates. The current article uses social dominance theory as a frame to review developmental research on social aggression perpetration and three indicators of social position: sociometric…

A modern clustering technique was applied to age-10 and age-13 sociometric data with the purpose of identifying longitudinally stable peer status clusters. The study included 445 girls from a Swedish longitudinal study. The identified temporally stable clusters of rejected, popular, and average girls were essentially larger than corresponding…

Investigated how peer acceptance and friendship were related to self-esteem in adolescents. Ninth-grade students (n=542) were classified by sociometric group and presence or absence of reciprocal friendships. Results indicate no significant difference in self-esteem scores across sociometric groups. Subjects with one friend had higher self-esteem…

Describes the attempts of 247 adolescents, classified into sociometric statuses of popular, neglected, rejected, controversial, and average, to handle stressful events by mobilizing social support. Results suggest that sociometric status does not prevent attempts to mobilize support, but status may affect the amount or type of support that helpers…

This longitudinal study examined relations between sociometric status and school adjustment among middle school students. Findings indicated that sixth-grade sociometric status predicted eighth-grade adjustment when controlling for initial adjustment. Compared to average status students, controversial status students had lower classroom grades,…