Peer cliques form an
important context for the social development of adolescents. Although clique
members are often similar in social status, also within cliques, status
differences exist. How differences in social status between clique members are
related to behaviors of its individual members is rather unknown.
This study
examined to what extent the relationship of individual social status (i.e.,
perceived popularity) with aggression and prosocial behavior depends on the
level of internal clique hierarchy. The sample consists of 2674 adolescents (49.8 %
boys), with a mean age of 14.02. We focused specifically on physical and
relational aggression, and practical and emotional support, because these
behaviors have shown to be of great importance for social relationships and
social standing among adolescents. The internal status hierarchy of cliques was
based on the variation in individual social status between clique members
(i.e., clique hierarchization) and the structure of status scores within a
clique (pyramid shape, inverted pyramid, or equal distribution of social status
scores) (i.e., clique status structure).
The results showed that differences in
aggressive and prosocial behaviors were particularly moderated by clique status
structure: aggression was stronger related to individual social status in
(girls') cliques where the clique status structure reflected an inverted
pyramid with relatively more high status adolescents within the clique than low
status peers, and prosocial behavior showed a significant relationship with
individual social status, again predominantly in inverted pyramid structured
(boys' and girls') cliques. Furthermore, these effects differed by types of
gender cliques: the associations were found in same gender but not mixed-gender
cliques.
The findings stress the importance of taking into account internal
clique characteristics when studying adolescent social status in relationship
to aggression and prosociality.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/bkG8aN
By:
- 1Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology, Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG, Groningen, The Netherlands. k.l.pattiselanno@rug.nl.
- 2Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology, Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG, Groningen, The Netherlands.
- 3Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht Centre of Child and Adolescent Studies, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan, 1, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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