Sociometric popularity is computed based on peer liking and dislike. The relation between sociometric popularity and perceived popularity, based on peer identification of school associates considered popular, was investigated in a sample of 727 middle school students (7th and 8th grades). Most sociometrically popular students were not high on perceived popularity. Most students high on perceived popularity were not sociometrically popular Perceived popularity was correlated more highly with a measure of dominance than was sociometric popularity. Sociometrically popular students who were not high on perceived popularity were characterized by peers as kind and trustworthy but not as dominant, aggressive, or stuck-up. Students who were high on perceived popularity but not sociometrically popular were characterized as dominant, aggressive, and stuck-up but not as kind and trustworthy. Sociometrically popular students who also were high on perceived popularity were characterized as kind, trustworthy, and dominant but not as aggressive or as stuck-up.

This research was designed to identify patterns of behavior and emotional response associated with peer rejection in early adolescence. Seventh-and eighth-grade middle-school students (N = 450) were administered positive and negative sociometric nominations, peer behavioral assessment items, a loneliness and social dissatisfaction questionnaire, and a newly developed interpersonal concerns questionnaire. Results indicated that most rejected students were aggressive or submissive, but it was the combination of aggressiveness or submissiveness with low levels of prosocial behavior that was associated with peer rejection. With regard to students' affective experiences, submissive-rejected students, when compared with average-status students, were found to report higher levels of loneliness and worry about their relations with others. Aggressive-rejected students did not differ on these dimensions from average-status students.Although considerable research now exists on the behavioral and affective characteristics of sociometrically rejected children (see Asher, Parkhurst, Hymel, &Williams, 1990, and Kupersmidt, 1990, for reviews), virtually all of this research has been with preschool and elementary school children, and very little attention has been given to the basis of sociometric status in the early or later adolescent years. Furthermore, the little existing work on the behavioral correlates of sociometric status in the adolescent peer group was primarily done more than three decades ago (

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract