Abstract
The beginning of secondary school is a critical time point of adolescents’ development as they entered a new peer context in which social status was re-established. As the key indicators of social status, likability and popularity co-occur but also display distinct developmental trajectories over time. Nevertheless, little is known about the joint developmental trajectories of likability and popularity among adolescents and how identified trajectories are associated with important social behavior. The current study examined the joint developmental trajectories of likability and popularity among Chinese adolescents and their associations with social behavior (prosocial behavior, aggression, and peer victimization) over time. A total of 1509 Chinese 7th grade students (53.6% male, Mage = 13.1, SD = 0.67) participated in self-report and peer nomination assessments on three occasions at 6-month intervals. Parallel process latent growth mixture models revealed four distinct trajectories of likability and popularity: social status decreasing, average, high social status, and social status increasing. The high social status group showed the highest levels of prosocial behavior, the lowest levels of peer victimization, and higher aggression than the average group. The social status decreasing group and social status increasing group exhibited the lower prosocial behavior as well as the higher aggression and peer victimization compared to the average group over time. The findings highlight the co-occurrence but diversity of developmental patterns of likability and popularity in adolescence.
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Authors′ Contributions
J.C. conceived of the study, participated in its design, collected data, performed the statistical analysis, and coordination and drafted the manuscript; Y.L. conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and drafted the manuscript; Y.X. conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and drafted the manuscript; S.L. assisted in interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the paper and paper revisions; T.L. conceived of the study and helped to draft the paper; P.R. conceived of the study, participated in its design, collected data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant Number: 20BSH067).
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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All procedures performed in the present study were in accordance with the recommendations of the Research Ethics Committee of the Beijing Normal University and with the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from both adolescents and their caregivers included in the study.
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Chen, J., Liang, Y., Xiong, Y. et al. Joint Developmental Trajectories of Likability and Popularity: Associations with Social Behavior among Chinese Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 52, 866–879 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01736-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01736-3