Peer-perceived popularity and different forms and functions of aggression in Croatian emerging adult women

Marija Šarić Drnas; Paula Pedić-Duić

doi:10.19090/pp.v18i3.2585

Authors

Marija Šarić Drnas Department of Psychology, Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Croatia https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3117-9965
Paula Pedić-Duić Department of Psychology, Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Croatia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4840-8641

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v18i3.2585

Keywords:

peer-perceived popularity, proactive overt aggression, reactive overt aggression, proactive relational aggression, reactive relational aggression

Abstract

This study examines the associations between peer-perceived popularity and aggression in emerging adult women. The sample included 155 education students from the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb (Mage = 20.5 years). Students were asked to nominate their fellow students whom they perceived as popular and unpopular to assess peer-perceived popularity. The different forms and functions of aggression were measured with the Peer Conflict Scale. The results supported the prediction that peer-perceived popularity among emerging adult women plays a more significant role in proactive compared to reactive aggression. In addition to the linear associations, a curvilinear trend also emerged, indicating that proactive overt aggression is associated with peer-perceived popularity and unpopularity in emerging adult women. The relationship between peer-perceived popularity and reactive types of aggression is more complex, suggesting that the dynamics between popularity and aggression among emerging adult women warrant further research.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Andreou, E. (2006). Social Preference, Perceived Popularity and Social Intelligence: Relations to Overt and Relational Aggression. School Psychology International, 27(3), 339–351. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034306067286

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469

Bailey, C. A., & Ostrov, J. M. (2008). Differentiating Forms and Functions of Aggression in Emerging Adults: Associations with Hostile Attribution Biases and Normative Beliefs. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37(6), 713–722. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-007-9211-5

Bell-Dolan, D. J., & Wessler, A. E. (1994). Ethical administration of sociometric measures: Procedures in use and suggestions for improvement. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 25(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.25.1.23

Berkowitz, L. (1989). Frustration-aggression hypothesis: Examination and reformulation. Psychological Bulletin, 106(1), 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.106.1.59

Casper, D. M., Card, N. A., & Barlow, C. (2020). Relational aggression and victimization during adolescence: A meta‐analytic review of unique associations with popularity, peer acceptance, rejection, and friendship characteristics. Journal of Adolescence, 80(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2019.12.012

Chmielowice‐Szymanski, N. S., Lansu, T. A. M., Burk, W. J., Van Den Berg, Y. H. M., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2024). Long‐term implications of childhood and adolescent popularity for social behavior and status in emerging adulthood. Social Development, 33(3), e12735. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12735

Cillessen, A. H. N., & Berg, Y. H. M. v. d. (2012). Popularity and school adjustment. In A. M. Ryan & G. W. Ladd (Eds.), Peer relationships and adjustment at school (pp. 135–164). IAP Information Age Publishing.

Cillessen, A. H. N., & Marks, P. E. (2011). Conceptualizing and measuring popularity. In A. H. N. Cillessen, D. Schwartz, & L. Mayeaux (Eds.), Popularity in the peer system (pp. 25–56). The Guilford Press.

Cillessen, A. H. N., & Rose, A. J. (2005). Understanding Popularity in the Peer System. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(2), 102–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00343.x

Cillessen, A. H. N., & Mayeux, L. (2004). From Censure to Reinforcement: Developmental Changes in the Association Between Aggression and Social Status. Child Development, 75(1), 147–163. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00660.x

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

De Bruyn, E. H., Cillessen, A. H. N., & Wissink, I. B. (2010). Associations of Peer Acceptance and Perceived Popularity With Bullying and Victimization in Early Adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 30(4), 543–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431609340517

Denson, T. F., O’Dean, S. M., Blake, K. R., & Beames, J. R. (2018). Aggression in Women: Behavior, Brain and Hormones. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 81. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00081

Estell, D. B., Farmer, T. W., Pearl, R., Van Acker, R., & Rodkin, P. C. (2008). Social status and aggressive and disruptive behavior in girls: Individual, group, and classroom influences. Journal of School Psychology, 46(2), 193–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2007.03.004

Ferris, L. E. (2002). World Report on Violence and Health: Edited by Etienne G. Krug, Linda L. Dahlberg, James A. Mercy, Anthony Zwi and Rafael Lozano. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2002. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 93(6), 451–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03405037

Fite, P. J., Craig, J., Colder, C. R., Lochman, J. E., & Wells, K. C. (2016). Proactive and Reactive Aggression. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Adolescence (pp. 1–10). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32132-5_211-2

Flatt, C., & Jacobs, R. L. (2019). Principle Assumptions of Regression Analysis: Testing, Techniques, and Statistical Reporting of Imperfect Data Sets. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 21(4), 484–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422319869915

Gangel, M. J., Keane, S. P., Calkins, S. D., Shanahan, L., & O’Brien, M. (2017). The Association Between Relational Aggression and Perceived Popularity in Early Adolescence: A Test of Competing Hypotheses. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 37(8), 1078–1092. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431616642327

Greitemeyer, T., & Sagioglou, C. (2016). Subjective socioeconomic status causes aggression: A test of the theory of social deprivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(2), 178–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000058

Guyer, A. E. & Jarcho, J. M. (2018). Neuroscience and peer relations. In W.M. Bukowski, B. Laursen, K.H. Rubin (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and group (2nd ed., pp. 177-199). Guilford Publications.

Kempes, M., Matthys, W., de Vries, H., & van Engeland, H. (2005). Reactive and proactive aggression in children--a review of theory, findings and the relevance for child and adolescent psychiatry. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 14(1), 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-005-0432-4

Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.

Kochel, K. P., Miller, C. F., Updegraff, K. A., Ladd, G. W., & Kochenderfer-Ladd, B. (2012). Associations Between Fifth Graders’ Gender Atypical Problem Behavior and Peer Relationships: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(8), 1022–1034. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9733-8

Lansu, T. A. M., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2012). Peer Status in Emerging Adulthood: Associations of Popularity and Preference With Social Roles and Behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research, 27(1), 132–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558411402341

Lansu, T. A. M., Findley-Van Nostrand, D., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2023). Popularity According to Emerging Adults: What is it, and How to Acquire it. Emerging Adulthood, 11(2), 331–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211066668

Lease, A. M., Kennedy, C. A., & Axelrod, J. L. (2002). Children’s Social Constructions of Popularity. Social Development, 11(1), 87–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00188

Liu, J., Lewis, G., & Evans, L. (2013). Understanding aggressive behaviour across the lifespan. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 20(2), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2012.01902.x

Lovakov, A., & Agadullina, E. R. (2021). Empirically derived guidelines for effect size interpretation in social psychology. European Journal of Social Psychology, 51(3), 485–504. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2752

Lu, T., Jin, S., Li, L., Niu, L., Chen, X., & French, D. C. (2018). Longitudinal associations between popularity and aggression in Chinese middle and high school adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 54(12), 2291–2301. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000591

Marsee, M. A., Barry, C. T., Childs, K. K., Frick, P. J., Kimonis, E. R., Muñoz, L. C., Aucoin, K. J., Fassnacht, G. M., Kunimatsu, M. M., & Lau, K. S. L. (2011). Assessing the forms and functions of aggression using self-report: Factor structure and invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in youths. Psychological Assessment, 23(3), 792–804. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023369

Marsee, M. A., & Frick, P. J. (2007). Exploring the Cognitive and Emotional Correlates to Proactive and Reactive Aggression in a Sample of Detained Girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35(6), 969–981. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9147-y

Mayeux, L., & Kleiser, M. (2020). A Gender Prototypicality Theory of Adolescent Peer Popularity. Adolescent Research Review, 5(3), 295–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-019-00123-z

McAndrew, F. T. (2014). The “sword of a woman”: Gossip and female aggression. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19(3), 196–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.04.006

McAuliffe, M. D., Hubbard, J. A., Rubin, R. M., Morrow, M. T., & Dearing, K. F. (2007). Reactive and Proactive Aggression: Stability of Constructs and Relations to Correlates. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 167(4), 365–382. https://doi.org/10.3200/GNTP.167.4.365-382

Mehari, K. R., Waasdorp, T. E., & Leff, S. S. (2019). Measuring relational and overt aggression by peer report: A comparison of peer nominations and peer ratings. Journal of School Violence, 18(3), 362–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2018.1504684

Meidenbauer, K. L., Choe, K. W., Bakkour, A., Inzlicht, M., Meidenbauer, M. L., & Berman, M. G. (2023). Characterizing the role of impulsivity in costly, reactive aggression using a novel paradigm. Behavior Research Methods, 56(2), 690–708. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02066-9

Murphy, M. (2008). Relations among gender-typical and gender-atypical uses of aggression, popularity, and depression. Kaleidoscope, 7(16), 93–99. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/kaleidoscope/vol7/iss1/16

Nelson, D. A., Springer, M. M., Nelson, L. J., & Bean, N. H. (2008). Normative Beliefs Regarding Aggression in Emerging Adulthood. Social Development, 17(3), 638–660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00442.x

Niven, K., Garcia, D., Van Der Löwe, I., Holman, D., & Mansell, W. (2015). Becoming popular: Interpersonal emotion regulation predicts relationship formation in real life social networks. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01452

Parkhurst, J. T., & Hopmeyer, A. (1998). Sociometric Popularity and Peer-Perceived Popularity: Two Distinct Dimensions of Peer Status. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 18(2), 125–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431698018002001

Pek, J., Wong, O., & Wong, A. C. M. (2018). How to Address Non-normality: A Taxonomy of Approaches, Reviewed, and Illustrated. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2104. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02104

Pellegrini, A. D., Roseth, C. J., Van Ryzin, M. J., & Solberg, D. W. (2011). Popularity as a form of social dominance: an evolutionary perspective. In A. H. N. Cillessen, D. Schwartz, & L. Mayeux (Eds.), Popularity in the peer system (pp. 123–139). The Guilford Press.

Prinstein, M. J., & Cillessen, A. H. (2003). Forms and Functions of Adolescent Peer Aggression Associated With High Levels of Peer Status. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 49(3), 310–342. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2003.0015

Prinstein, M. J., & Giletta, M. (2016). Peer Relations and Developmental Psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti (Ed.), Developmental Psychopathology (1st ed., pp. 1–53). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119125556.devpsy112

Quan, F., Wang, L., Gong, X., Lei, X., Liang, B., & Zhang, S. (2022). Hostile Attribution Bias and Anger Rumination Sequentially Mediate the Association Between Trait Anger and Reactive Aggression. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 778695. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.778695

R Core Team (2024). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/

Rose, A. J., Swenson, L. P., & Waller, E. M. (2004). Overt and Relational Aggression and Perceived Popularity: Developmental Differences in Concurrent and Prospective Relations. Developmental Psychology, 40(3), 378–387. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.3.378

Rubić, I. (2021). Akademska i socijalna uključenost kao prediktor uspjeha i završnosti studenata (Doctoral dissertation, University of Zadar). https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:162:838716

Ruschoff, B., Dijkstra, J. K., Veenstra, R., & Lindenberg, S. (2015). Peer status beyond adolescence: Types and behavioral associations. Journal of Adolescence, 45(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.08.013

Salmivalli, C., Kaukiainen, A., & Lagerspetz, K. (2000). Aggression and Sociometric Status among Peers: Do Gender and Type of Aggression Matter? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 41(1), 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00166

Savage, J., Ferguson, C. J., & Flores, L. (2017). The effect of academic achievement on aggression and violent behavior: A meta-analysis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 37, 91–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2017.08.002

Savage, J., & Wozniak, K.H. (2016). Thugs and thieves: The differential etiology of violence. Oxford University Press.

Sheldon, P., Rauschnabel, P. A., Antony, M. G., & Car, S. (2017). A cross-cultural comparison of Croatian and American social network sites: Exploring cultural differences in motives for Instagram use. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 643–651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.06.009

Stoltz, S., Cillessen, A. H. N., Van Den Berg, Y. H. M., & Gommans, R. (2016). Popularity differentially predicts reactive and proactive aggression in early adolescence. Aggressive Behavior, 42(1), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21603

Strohmeier, D., Yanagida, T., & Toda, Y. (2016). Individualism/collectivism as predictors of relational and physical victimization in Japan and Austria. In P. K. Smith, K. Kwak, & Y. Toda (Eds.), School bullying in different cultures: Eastern and Western perspectives (pp. 259–279). Cambridge University Press.

Šarić, M. (2017). The role of reinforcement sensitivity and perceived parental behavior in proactive and reactive aggressive behavior among adolescents [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Šarić Drnas, M. (2020). The role of gender in the relationship between reinforcement sensitivity and aggression among adolescents. International Journal of Emotional Education, 12(1), 3–18. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1251782

Tuvblad, C., Raine, A., Zheng, M., & Baker, L. A. (2009). Genetic and environmental stability differs in reactive and proactive aggression. Aggressive Behavior, 35(6), 437–452. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20319

Vaillancourt, T., & Hymel, S. (2006). Aggression and social status: The moderating roles of sex and peer‐valued characteristics. Aggressive Behavior, 32(4), 396–408. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20138

Van Den Berg, Y. H. M., Lansu, T. A. M., & Cillessen, A. H. N. (2020). Preference and popularity as distinct forms of status: A meta‐analytic review of 20 years of research. Journal of Adolescence, 84(1), 78–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.07.010

Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (2002). Reactively and proactively aggressive children: Antecedent and subsequent characteristics. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(4), 495–505. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00040

Walcott, C. M., Upton, A., Bolen, L. M., & Brown, M. B. (2008). Associations between peer‐perceived status and aggression in young adolescents. Psychology in the Schools, 45(6), 550–561. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20323

Yavuzer, Y. (2013). Investigation of relationship between aggression and sociometric popularity in adolescents. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 13(2), 767-780. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1017307

Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Geiger, T. C., & Crick, N. R. (2005). Relational and Physical Aggression, Prosocial Behavior, and Peer Relations: Gender Moderation and Bidirectional Associations. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 25(4), 421–452. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431605279841