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Adolescents’ Social Status Goals: Relationships to Social Status Insecurity, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior

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Abstract

Peer status is an important aspect of adolescents’ social lives and is pursued actively by them. Although extensive research has examined how social behaviors are related to peer status (e.g., social preference, popularity), little attention has been given to adolescents’ social goals to obtain a desired peer status. Thus, this study examined two types of social status goals, popularity goal and social preference goal, and their relationships to social status insecurity and social behaviors among 405 ethnically diverse early adolescents (267 girls; M age = 12.92 years; age range = 11–15 years). After accounting for adolescents’ attained peer statuses (popularity and social preference), both social status goals were related distinctly to aggressive and prosocial behaviors as measured by self reports and peer nominations. Specifically, higher endorsement of the popularity goal was related to more self-reported relational aggression, but less peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In contrast, higher endorsement of the social preference goal was linked to less self-reported overt and relational aggression, but more self-reported and peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In addition, this study reveals that adolescents’ social status insecurity was related positively to both social status goals and had an indirect effect on adolescents’ social behaviors through the mediation of popularity goal endorsement. There were variations in goal endorsement as shown by groups of adolescents endorsing different levels of each goal. The group comparison results on social behaviors were largely consistent with the correlational findings. This study provides new insights into adolescents’ social cognitive processes about peer status and the implications of the two social status goals on adolescents’ behavioral development.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Faculty Development Summer Research Grants awarded to the first author from the College of Science and Health at DePaul University. Preliminary findings of this study have been reported at the 14th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The authors are grateful to the adolescents who participated in this research and the schools and research assistants who facilitated the data collection.

Author Contributions

Yan Li conceived the study, participated in its design, led the analytic strategies and data interpretation, and drafted the manuscript; Michelle F. Wright participated in the design, conducted data collection, performed the statistical analysis, and helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA

    Yan Li

  2. Department of Psychology, Institute for Research on Children, Youth, and Family, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Michelle F. Wright

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  1. Yan Li
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  2. Michelle F. Wright
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Correspondence to Yan Li.

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Li, Y., Wright, M.F. Adolescents’ Social Status Goals: Relationships to Social Status Insecurity, Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior. J Youth Adolescence 43, 146–160 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9939-z

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