Differences in Adolescents' Alcohol Use and Smoking Behavior between Educational Tracks:Do Popularity Norms Matter?

Explanations about differences in drinking and smoking rates between educational tracks have so far mainly focused on factors outside the classroom. The extent to which these behaviors are rewarded with popularity within a classroom—so called popularity norms—and their interaction with individual characteristics could explain the observed differences in risk behavior. 1860 adolescents (M(age) = 13.04; 50% girls) from 81 different classrooms reported three times during one academic year about their own and their classmates behavior. Overall, in vocational tracks popularity norms for alcohol and smoking were more positive and predicted classroom differences in alcohol and smoking. Knowledge about classroom processes can advance the field in unraveling the functional aspects of risk behavior in adolescence. Preregistration: The hypotheses and the analytical plan of this study were preregistered under number #39136 (https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=gx77p6)

Bullying and Victimization Trajectories in the First Years of Secondary Education:Implications for Status and Affection

Bullying is known to be associated with social status, but it remains unclear how bullying involvement over time relates to social position (status and affection), especially in the first years at a new school. The aim of this study was to investigate whether (the development of) bullying and victimization was related to the attainment of status (perceived popularity) and affection (friendships, acceptance, rejection) in the first years of secondary education (six waves). Using longitudinal data spanning the first- and second year of secondary education of 824 adolescents (51.5% girls; M(age) T1 = 12.54, SD = 0.45) in the SNARE-study, joint bullying and victimization trajectories were estimated using parallel Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA). The four trajectories (decreasing bully, stable high bully, decreasing victim, uninvolved) were related to adolescents’ social position using multigroup analysis that examined differences in slope and intercepts (T1 and T6) of social positions, and indicated that the relative social position of the different joint trajectories was determined at the start of secondary education and did not change over time, with one exception: adolescents continuing bullying were besides being popular also increasingly rejected over time. Although bullying is functional behavior that serves to optimize adolescents’ social position, anti-bullying interventions may account for the increasing lack of affection that may hinder bullies’ long-term social development

Classroom Popularity Hierarchy Predicts Prosocial and Aggressive Popularity Norms Across the School Year

This research is part of the Social Network Analyses of Risk behavior in Early adolescence (SNARE) study. Participating centers of SNARE include the Department of Sociology of the University of Groningen and the Utrecht Centre for Child and Adolescent Studies of the Utrecht University. SNARE has been financially supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Vernieuwingsimpuls VENI grant project number 451‐10‐012, awarded to author Jan Kornelis Dijkstra (2010), and NWO Youth & Family Program project number 431‐09‐027, awarded to Wilma Vollebergh, Jan Kornelis Dijkstra, René Veenstra, & Zeena Harakeh (2010) and NWO‐Programming Council for Educational Research project number 411‐12‐027, awarded to René Veenstra, Wilma Vollebergh, Marijtje Van Duijn, Zeena Harakeh, Jan Kornelis Dijkstra, & Christian Steglich (2013). We thank the schools, teachers, and adolescents who participated in the SNARE project, and we are thankful that Aart Franken, Kim Pattiselanno, Loes van Rijsewijk, and Lydia Laninga‐Wijnen collected the SNARE data. We thank Assistant Professor and statistician Caspar van Lissa for his useful advices on our analyses.</p

The role of defending norms in victims' classroom climate perceptions and psychosocial maladjustment in secondary school

Contains fulltext : 227285.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Victims of bullying are at increased risk of developing psychosocial problems. It is often claimed that it helps victims when others stand up against the bullying and when defending is typical (descriptive norm) or rewarded with popularity (popularity norm) in classrooms. However, recent work on the healthy context paradox suggests that victims-paradoxically-tend to do worse in more positive classrooms. Therefore, it is possible that defending norms are counterproductive and exacerbate victims' adjustment difficulties, possibly because social maladjustment is more apparent in classrooms where everybody else is doing well. The current study examined whether descriptive and popularity norms for defending predicted victims' classroom climate perceptions and psychosocial adjustment. Using data of 1,206 secondary school students from 45 classrooms (Mage = 13.61), multi-level analyses indicated that descriptive norms for defending increased rather than decreased negative classroom climate perceptions and maladjustment of victimized youths. In contrast, popularity norms for defending positively predicted all students' classroom climate perceptions and feelings of belonging, except victims' self-esteem. Interventions may benefit more from promoting popularity norms for defending rather than descriptive norms for defending.16 p

Does defending affect adolescents' peer status, or vice versa? Testing the moderating effects of empathy, gender, and anti-bullying norms

This study examined bidirectional associations between students' bully-directed defending behavior and their peer status (being liked or popular) and tested for the moderating role of empathy, gender, and classroom anti-bullying norms. Three waves of data were collected at 4-5-month time intervals among 3680 Finnish adolescents (Mage = 13.94, 53.0% girls). Cross-lagged panel analyses showed that defending positively predicted popularity and, to a larger degree, being liked over time. No moderating effect of empathy was found. Popularity was more strongly predictive of defending, and defending was more strongly predictive of status among girls than among boys. Moreover, the positive effects of both types of status on defending were - albeit to a limited extent - stronger in classrooms with higher anti-bullying norms

Bullying prevention in adolescence: Solutions and new challenges from the past decade

Bullying among youth at school continues to be a global challenge. Being exposed to bullying may be especially hurtful in adolescence, a vulnerable period during which both peer group belonging and status become key concerns. In the current review, we first summarize the effectiveness of the solutions that were offered a decade ago in the form of anti-bullying programs. We proceed by highlighting some intriguing challenges concomitant to, or emerging from these solutions, focusing especially on their relevance during adolescence. These challenges are related to (1) the relatively weak, and highly variable effects of anti-bullying programs, (2) the complex associations among bullying, victimization, and social status, (3) the questions raised regarding the beneficial (or possibly iatrogenic) effects of peer defending, and (4) the healthy context paradox, that is, the phenomenon of remaining or emerging victims being worse off in contexts where the average levels of victimization decrease. We end by providing some suggestions for the next decade of research in the area of bullying prevention among adolescents

Are victims of bullying primarily social outcasts?: Person‐group dissimilarities in relational, socio‐behavioral, and physical characteristics as predictors of victimization

Existing literature has mostly explained the occurrence of bullying victimization by individual socioemotional maladjustment. Instead, this study tested the person-group dissimilarity model (Wright et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50: 523–536, 1986) by examining whether individuals’ deviation from developmentally important (relational, socio-behavioral, and physical) descriptive classroom norms predicted victimization. Adolescents (N = 1267, k = 56 classrooms; Mage = 13.2; 48.7% boys; 83.4% Dutch) provided self-reported and peer-nomination data throughout one school year (three timepoints). Results from group actor–partner interdependence models indicated that more person-group dissimilarity in relational characteristics (fewer friendships; incidence rate ratios [IRR]T2 = 0.28, IRRT3 = 0.16, fewer social media connections; IRRT3 = 0.13) and, particularly, lower disruptive behaviors (IRRT2 = 0.35, IRRT3 = 0.26) predicted victimization throughout the school year

The Moderating Role of Popular Peers’ Achievement Goals in 5th- and 6th- graders Achievement-related Friendships : A Social Network Analysis

This research investigated whether classroom-based peer norms for achievement goals moderate friendship selection, maintenance and influence processes related to academic achievement in 46 5th and 6th grade classrooms (N = 901, 58.7% 5th grade students, 48.5% boys). A distinction was made between peer norms for mastery (i.e., developing competence) and performance (i.e., demonstrating competence) goals. Peer norms were measured in terms of popularity norms (the within-classroom correlation between student achievement goals and popularity) and descriptive norms (the class-level aggregated average achievement goals). As hypothesized, longitudinal social network analyses revealed that achievement goal popularity norms played a role in friendship processes, rather than achievement goal descriptive norms. Specifically, adolescents formed friendships with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms. Conversely, adolescents remained friends with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms. Furthermore, friendship influence on achievement took place in classrooms with high mastery goal popularity norms, but not in classrooms with low mastery goal popularity norms. This study indicates that friendship processes regarding achievement depend upon the extent to which certain achievement goals are made salient by virtue of their association with popularity in classrooms

The Moderating Role of Popular Peers’ Achievement Goals in 5th- and 6th- graders Achievement-related Friendships : A Social Network Analysis

This research investigated whether classroom-based peer norms for achievement goals moderate friendship selection, maintenance and influence processes related to academic achievement in 46 5th and 6th grade classrooms (N = 901, 58.7% 5th grade students, 48.5% boys). A distinction was made between peer norms for mastery (i.e., developing competence) and performance (i.e., demonstrating competence) goals. Peer norms were measured in terms of popularity norms (the within-classroom correlation between student achievement goals and popularity) and descriptive norms (the class-level aggregated average achievement goals). As hypothesized, longitudinal social network analyses revealed that achievement goal popularity norms played a role in friendship processes, rather than achievement goal descriptive norms. Specifically, adolescents formed friendships with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms. Conversely, adolescents remained friends with similarly achieving peers in classrooms with low performance goal popularity norms but not in classrooms with high performance goal popularity norms. Furthermore, friendship influence on achievement took place in classrooms with high mastery goal popularity norms, but not in classrooms with low mastery goal popularity norms. This study indicates that friendship processes regarding achievement depend upon the extent to which certain achievement goals are made salient by virtue of their association with popularity in classrooms