Peer-perceived Popularity and Overt Aggression in Adolescence: The Moderating Effect of Self-perceived Popularity

Abstract

This study tested whether self-perceived popularity and gender are moderators of the association between peer-perceived popularity and overt aggression in adolescence. The sample consisted of 642 Dutch adolescents (mean age = 12.9 years), from 27 classrooms from 14 secondary schools. Consistent with our expectations, the association between peer-perceived popularity and overt aggression was positive and significant. As expected, self-perception of popularity moderated this association, with popular adolescents who also perceived themselves as popular being more overtly aggressive than popular adolescents who were not aware of their popularity. Consistent with our hypotheses, gender was found to be a moderator on the association between peer-perceived popularity and overt aggression as well, but not exactly in the way it was expected. Boys showed overall higher levels of overt aggression in comparison to girls, but when peer-perceived popularity increased this gender difference became smaller. In other words, the increase in overt aggression with peer-perceived popularity was stronger for girls than for boys. With both self-perceived popularity and gender found to be moderators of the positive association between overt aggression and peer-perceived popularity, all hypotheses were confirmed.