Disentangling dyadic and reputational perceptions of prosociality, aggression, and popularity in explaining friendship networks in early adolescence

Abstract

This study examined the differential effects of two forms of adolescents’ perceptions of peers’ prosociality, aggression, and popularity, on friendship selection. Individuals’ reports of their peers’ behaviors (dyadic perceptions) and the aggregated classmates’ reports (reputational perceptions) were disentangled. The findings indicated that adolescents were more likely to befriend classmates widely perceived as prosocial (reputational perception) and were less likely to befriend classmates they perceived as aggressive (dyadic perception). For popularity, the effect of dyadic perception disappeared when including the reputational perception. The findings highlight the differences between the dyadic and reputational perceptions of peer behavior. Not only dyadic perceptions of behaviors but also reputational perceptions exert a role in befriending peers.

Introduction to the special issue: Social network analysis and its application to schools.

“…While important, these approaches cannot readily assess the influence of broader social structures (i.e., networks) in which students are embedded (Hanish & Rodkin, 2007). For example, while friendship dyads provide essential insights on the expression of delinquent behaviors (Selfhout et al, 2008), loneliness (Spithoven et al, 2018), depression (Giletta et al, 2011), and even humor (Hunter et al, 2016), they provide a limited perspective on how such expressions are shared, transmitted, or expressed across the larger peer network (Palacios et al, 2022). Moreover, although research on dyads illuminate the effects of direct relationships, research shows that indirect relationships (i.e., the influence of a friend’s friend) can have substantial influence on individual behaviors (Jackson et al, 2015).…”

Becoming Connected - Adolescent Social-Cognitive Development in the Peer Context

“…Research shows that adolescents conform more to behaviors of high status peers (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011). While peer preference and popularity are based on reputational perceptions within the peer network, dyadic approaches consider the perception of specific adolescents on the characteristics of a peer (Palacios et al, 2021). In chapter 7 we examined social perception on a dyadic level, by investigating the influence of social feedback of peers who were nominated as liked or disliked by individual adolescents.…”