Topic > Popularity and Self-Esteem of Children - 1184

Research has shown that popularity is very important for a child. Popularity isn't just about making friends, it shows status and can be measured on a scale. Importance is also important for a child and can be measured with other social domains. Children will prioritize being popular over other aspects of their social life, such as making friends or maintaining acquaintances. Especially Sullivan wrote many theories about friendships and popularity among children. It is more important to be popular in a group of friends than to have only many friends or only a few important friends. Teens have pretty complicated goals when it comes to making friends. Popularity is usually a personal aspect that children don't talk about publicly but that everyone wants. According to popularity theories, popularity is a selective process that must occur for children to be included in a specific group. These groups are usually despised by other students, even though they may be criticized loudly. Many teens may make fun of other “clicks” when interpersonally they would like to be part of it. Children lead based on status, which is automatically assigned to them if they are associated with a popularity group. Popularity has a great impact on children of all ages and once children understand the concept of popularity, they want it. Two questions are asked within the study. How is popularity related to the behavior to obtain it, and how does the behavior to become popular affect the actual outcome of it? There may be specific behaviors associated with becoming popular or having popularity as a very specific goal that a student desires. Aggression and perception of popularity were both grouped together when considering the interaction between personal status, goal, and aggression related to becoming a popular student. Physical aggression was also used by students with low popularity priority, but their popularity increased during the end of the year. Students who started with low popularity status were known as wannabes. It is expected that these students have no chance of achieving a high popularity status goal. The study used only one variable to measure the amount of behavior needed to become a popular student. In future studies, additional measurements can be added to see if the results are similar or if the accuracy was correct in the first study. Popularity is a relevant topic to still study in adolescents due to its overall high priority in student behavior. The study concluded that, including social aggression, other behaviors are determining factors in adolescent popularity.