Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective

Abstract

In Exp I, peer perceptual correlates of social preference (SP) and social impact (SI) were investigated with 311 3rd, 5th, and 8th graders. SP was highly positively related to cooperativeness, supportiveness, and physical attractiveness and negatively related to disruptiveness and aggression. SI was related to active, salient behaviors of both positive and negative valence. Whereas the correlates were found to be similar at each grade level, greater proportions of the variance in these dimensions could be predicted at younger than older ages. In Exp II, these dimensions were used to assign 531 Ss to 5 sociometric status groups: popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average. Peer perceptions of the behavioral correlates of these groups were solicited and found to reveal distinct profiles. A previously unidentified group of controversial children was perceived as disruptive and aggressive (like the rejected group), but also as social leaders (like popular Ss). It is suggested that researchers consider controversial children as a distinct group in future behavioral and epidemiological studies. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1982 American Psychological Association.