Social goals and bullying: Examining the moderating role of self‐perceived popularity, social status insecurity and classroom variability in popularity

Abstract

The positive relationship between popularity goals and bullying in early adolescence is documented in many studies. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between student social goals of two types (popularity and social preference) and bullying in a diverse sample of early and middle adolescents. Additionally, we aimed to investigate both individual (self‐perceived popularity and social status insecurity) and classroom‐level (the classroom variability in self‐perceived popularity) moderators of the relationship between popularity goals and bullying. A total of 2039 students (59.48% girls; mean age 15.48 years) nested within 106 classrooms participated in the study. Using a cross‐sectional research design, we found that popularity goals were a positive predictor of bullying, while social preference goals were a negative predictor. Self‐perceived popularity and social status insecurity were found to moderate the relationship between popularity goals and bullying; higher levels of bullying were reported by students with high popularity goals and high self‐perceived popularity or high social status insecurity. In addition, popularity goals were a stronger predictor of bullying for students in classrooms with higher classroom variability in self‐perceived popularity.

Popularity According to Emerging Adults: What is it, and How to Acquire it

“…Self-perceived popularity was more strongly associated than self-perceived preference with the two status motives, suggesting that emerging adults who see themselves as popular strive for status more, both in terms of social position and belonging. The moderately strong association between self-perceived popularity and power motivation in emerging adults is in line with similar (but slightly weaker) associations found in adolescence ( r = .12, Dumas et al, 2019; r = .33, Košir et al, 2021).…”

The Association between Appetitive Aggression and Social Media Addiction Mediated by Cyberbullying: The Moderating Role of Inclusive Norms

“…Our findings suggest that even though higher perceived inclusive norms may dampen the immediate affective rewards for cyberbullying others (i.e., taking away the fun of cyberaggression), this dampening effect may be weaker on other desired rewards, such as getting attention and asserting dominance over others. Relatedly, a recent study on bullying among adolescents found that while bullies have higher popularity goals and social status insecurity, their social preference goal (i.e., the need to be liked by peers) is not significantly higher [ 62 ]. This finding may explain why controlled appetitive aggression, such as the motive to assert dominance using cyberaggression, may outweigh their perceived repercussions of being disliked by their peers for excluding others.…”

Social status, popularity goals and students with learning disabilities: an initial investigation

“…Students with a LD diagnosis have friends and peer group membership, but are often in less popular peer groups (Estell, Jones, et al, 2008; Estell et al, 2009; Farmer & Farmer, 1996). The extant theoretical explanation for why students with a LD diagnosis may be less popular does not focus on whether students with a LD diagnosis desire greater popularity, though being popular often comes with social benefits (Dawes & Xie, 2017; Estell, 2020; Košir et al, 2022). This leaves open the possibility that lower social status for students with a LD diagnosis could be a function of not desiring popularity.…”

“…Popularity goals are becoming well‐understood in students without LD (Dawes & Xie, 2017; Estell, 2020; Košir et al, 2022), but there is much less research on the popularity goals of students with a LD diagnosis. This empirical gap in the literature leaves open the possibility that students with a LD diagnosis do not integrate into popular peer groups because they do not create social goals with popularity as the underlying purpose.…”