Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity
As competition over peer status becomes intense during adolescence, some adolescents develop insecure feelings regarding their social standing among their peers (i.e., social status insecurity). These adolescents sometimes use aggression to defend or promote their status. The aim of this study was t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606865/full |
| _version_ | 1819078386104926208 |
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| author | Michelle F. Wright Michelle F. Wright Sebastian Wachs Sebastian Wachs Zheng Huang |
| author_facet | Michelle F. Wright Michelle F. Wright Sebastian Wachs Sebastian Wachs Zheng Huang |
| author_sort | Michelle F. Wright |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As competition over peer status becomes intense during adolescence, some adolescents develop insecure feelings regarding their social standing among their peers (i.e., social status insecurity). These adolescents sometimes use aggression to defend or promote their status. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among social status insecurity, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and popularity-motivated aggression and prosocial behaviors among adolescents, while controlling for gender. Another purpose was to examine the potential moderating role of CU traits in these relationships. Participants were 1,047 (49.2% girls; Mage = 12.44 years; age range from 11 to 14 years) in the 7th or 8th grades from a large Midwestern city. They completed questionnaires on social status insecurity, CU traits, and popularity-motivated relational aggression, physical aggression, cyberaggression, and prosocial behaviors. A structural regression model was conducted, with gender as a covariate. The model had adequate fit. Social status insecurity was associated positively with callousness, unemotional, and popularity-motivated aggression and related negatively to popularity-motivated prosocial behaviors. High social status insecurity was related to greater popularity-motivated aggression when adolescents had high callousness traits. The findings have implications for understanding the individual characteristics associated with social status insecurity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T19:12:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6d4c327028ba4e34b57a89046d3c1937 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T19:12:16Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-6d4c327028ba4e34b57a89046d3c19372022-12-21T18:53:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-01-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.606865606865Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status InsecurityMichelle F. Wright0Michelle F. Wright1Sebastian Wachs2Sebastian Wachs3Zheng Huang4Department of Psychology, Child Study Center, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United StatesFaculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, CzechiaDepartment of Educational Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, GermanyNational Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre, Dublin City University, Dublin, IrelandSchool of Business and Trade, Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, Nanjing, ChinaAs competition over peer status becomes intense during adolescence, some adolescents develop insecure feelings regarding their social standing among their peers (i.e., social status insecurity). These adolescents sometimes use aggression to defend or promote their status. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among social status insecurity, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and popularity-motivated aggression and prosocial behaviors among adolescents, while controlling for gender. Another purpose was to examine the potential moderating role of CU traits in these relationships. Participants were 1,047 (49.2% girls; Mage = 12.44 years; age range from 11 to 14 years) in the 7th or 8th grades from a large Midwestern city. They completed questionnaires on social status insecurity, CU traits, and popularity-motivated relational aggression, physical aggression, cyberaggression, and prosocial behaviors. A structural regression model was conducted, with gender as a covariate. The model had adequate fit. Social status insecurity was associated positively with callousness, unemotional, and popularity-motivated aggression and related negatively to popularity-motivated prosocial behaviors. High social status insecurity was related to greater popularity-motivated aggression when adolescents had high callousness traits. The findings have implications for understanding the individual characteristics associated with social status insecurity.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606865/fullsocial status insecuritycallousnessunemotionaluncaringcallous-unemotional traitsaggression |
| spellingShingle | Michelle F. Wright Michelle F. Wright Sebastian Wachs Sebastian Wachs Zheng Huang Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity Frontiers in Psychology social status insecurity callousness unemotional uncaring callous-unemotional traits aggression |
| title | Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity |
| title_full | Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity |
| title_fullStr | Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity |
| title_short | Adolescents’ Popularity-Motivated Aggression and Prosocial Behaviors: The Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Social Status Insecurity |
| title_sort | adolescents popularity motivated aggression and prosocial behaviors the roles of callous unemotional traits and social status insecurity |
| topic | social status insecurity callousness unemotional uncaring callous-unemotional traits aggression |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606865/full |
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