Children's perceptions of popular and unpopular peers: A multimethod assessment.
Abstract
Children's perceptions of popular and unpopular peers were examined in 2 studies. Study 1 examined the degree to which 4th-8th-grade boys and girls (N = 408) nominated the same peers for multiple criteria. Children viewed liked others as prosocial and disliked others as antisocial but associated perceived popularity with both prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Study 2, a subset of the children from Study 1 (N = 92) described what makes boys and girls popular or unpopular. Children described popular peers as attractive with frequent peer interactions, and unpopular peers as unattractive, deviant, incompetent, and socially isolated. In both studies, children's perceptions varied as a function of the gender, age, and ethnicity of the participants.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Most studies indicate a positive correlation of cognitive intelligence with peer acceptance and a negative correlation with rejection.
“Most of these studies indicate a positive correlation of cognitive intelligence with peer acceptance (Czeschlik, Rost, 1995; Dundić, Pleić, 2022; LaFontana, Cillessen, 2002; Newcomb, Bukowski, Pattee, 1993; see also Weyns, Colpin, Verschueren, 2021), and a negative correlation with rejection (Czeschlik, Rost, 1995).”
From The The effects of cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence on children’s sociometric status in a new peer group (2023) · cites this paper as LaFontana, Cillessen, 2002
The finding that changes in sociometric status are not influenced by cognitive intelligence is inconsistent with the majority of previous findings.
“The observation that such changes are not influenced by cognitive intelligence is inconsistent with the majority of previous findings (see, e.g., Czeschlik, Rost, 1995; LaFontana, Cillessen, 2002; Newcomb, Bukowski, Haselager, 1993).”
From The The effects of cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence on children’s sociometric status in a new peer group (2023) · cites this paper as LaFontana, Cillessen, 2002
Popular children score higher than average on prosocial and helpful behaviors and lower on aggressive and acting-out behaviors, whereas rejected children score higher on aggressive and acting-out behaviors and lower on prosocial behaviors.
“It has been consistently shown that popular children score higher than average on prosocial and helpful behaviors and lower on aggressive and acting-out behaviors, as opposed to rejected children, who score higher on aggressive and acting-out behaviors and lower on prosocial behaviors (see e.g.: Camodeca, Caravita, Coppola, 2015; Garaigordobil, 2017; LaFontana, Cillessen, 2002; Marryat, Thompson,”
From The The effects of cognitive, social, and emotional intelligence on children’s sociometric status in a new peer group (2023) · cites this paper as LaFontana, Cillessen, 2002
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 42 · Cited by 616
- Authors
- LaFontana, K. M., & Cillessen, A. H. N.
- Affiliations
- Sacred Heart University (US)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- Venue
- Developmental Psychology
- Published
- 2002
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 635-647
- ISSN
- 0012-1649 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-0599
- OpenAlex
- W1997374086
- Cited by
- 616
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 40 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 44 · 2012: 35
- FWCI
- 19.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Developmental Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- peer popularity, peer rejection, peer nominations, prosocial behavior, antisocial behavior, gender differences, age differences, ethnicity, social isolation, peer deviance
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Adolescent, Age Factors, Aggression, Child, Cooperative Behavior, Ethnicity, Female, Humans, Male, Peer Group, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sex Factors, Social Desirability, Social Perception, Sociometric Techniques, Sports
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
