Status Perceptions Matter: Understanding Disliking Among Adolescents

Abstract

Abstract:The emergence of disliking relations depends on how adolescents perceive the relative informal status of their peers. This notion is examined on a longitudinal sample using dynamic network analysis (585 students across 16 classes in 5 schools). As hypothesized individuals dislike those who they look down on (disdain) and conform to others by disliking those who they perceive as being looked down on by their peers (conformity). The inconsistency between status perceptions also leads to disliking, when individuals do not look up to those who they perceive to be admired by peers (frustration). No evidence is found that adolescents do not dislike those who they look up to (admiration). Results demonstrate the role of status perceptions on disliking tie formation. Interpersonal relationships among adolescents play a central role in their social development. Recent research suggests that although disliking ties are reported less frequently than liking relations, they are present in adolescents' everyday life and therefore drive their development in fundamental ways (Card, 2010). Compared to positive emotional relationships, such as friendship or liking, disliking ties are relatively rare (e.g., Baldwin, Bedell, & Johnson, 1997; Card, 2010; Gersick, Dutton, & Bartunek, 2000; Labianca, Brass, & Gray, 1998). Although disliking ties are scarce, they are very powerful: studies that successfully measured them found that disliking relations have a disproportionally greater effect on satisfaction, mood, performance and stress than liking relations, which has been described as a "negative asymmetry" (Labianca, Brass, & Gray, 1998; Labianca & Brass, 2006;Moerbeek & Need, 2003). Journal of Research on AdolescenceDisliking relations should be studied in a network context, given that they are not independent from each other (Huitsing et al., 2012). Disliking nominations depend on each other in various ways. They are often reciprocated (e.g., Berger & Dijkstra, 2013; Card, 2010) and balanced in triadic relations (Cartwright & Harary, 1956;Hummon & Doreian, 2003;Ludwig & Abell, 2007; Marvel, Kleinberg, Kleinberg, & Strogatz, 2011;Wang & Thorngate, 2003). Moreover, heterophobia exists as people dislike dissimilar others (Flache & Mäs, 2008). Going beyond these elementary structural processes, we argue that a crucial factor that requires particular attention for the explanation of the emergence of disliking relations is status.Gaining status among peers represents a major goal for adolescents (Lindenberg & Steg, 2007; Pellegrini & Long, 2002), and high status adolescents are more influential than their low status peers as they have a major role to set the norm in a class (Rambaran, Dijkstra, & Stark, 2013). Status competition and the resulting status perceptions in particular are important drivers of the formation of relational ties and peer influence (e.g., Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011;Faris & Ennett, 2010;Faris & Felmlee, 2011; Faris, 2012). Only few studies attempted thus far to explain how status is responsible fo...

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