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Article
Popularity, Social Acceptance, and Aggression in Adolescent Peer Groups: Links with Academic Performance and School Attendance
Developmental psychology (2006)
  • David Schwartz, University of Southern California
  • Andrea Hopmeyer Gorman, Occidental College
  • Jonathan Nakamoto
  • Tara McKay
Abstract
This article reports a short-term longitudinal study focusing on popularity and social acceptance as predictors of academic engagement for a sample of 342 adolescents (approximate average age of 14). These youths were followed for 4 consecutive semesters. Popularity, social acceptance, and aggression were assessed with a peer nomination inventory, and data on academic engagement were obtained from school records. For adolescents who were highly aggressive, increases in popularity were associated with increases in unexplained absences and decreases in grade point average. Conversely, changes in social acceptance were not predictive of changes in grade point average or unexplained absences. These results highlight the importance of multidimensional conceptualizations of social standing for research on school adjustment during adolescence and emphasize the potential risks associated with popularity.
Publication Date
November, 2006
Citation Information
David Schwartz, Andrea Hopmeyer Gorman, Jonathan Nakamoto and Tara McKay. "Popularity, Social Acceptance, and Aggression in Adolescent Peer Groups: Links with Academic Performance and School Attendance" Developmental psychology Vol. 42 Iss. 6 (2006)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrea_gormanhopmeyer/6/