Adolescents’ popularity levels depend on the perceptions of other group members. These perceptions are based on the individual’s interpretation of the group characteristics and dynamic. Following the shared reality theory, people develop their representations about their social world jointly with significant others. During adolescence, friends and popular peers become relevant in the elaboration of youth’ description of their social reality, but developmental differences could be expected. The present study has two aims: 1) explore the influence of friends and popular peers on individuals’ popularity perceptions, and 2) identify if these effects differ among adolescents in different secondary school levels (from 12 to 16 years). A total of 3,692 adolescents (48% girls, M_age = 13.63 years; SD = 1.37) from 136 classrooms participated in the study. The distribution among four secondary school levels was similar (between 23-28% of students). Longitudinal multiplex social network analyzes showed that adolescents of all secondary school levels were more likely to perceive both their friends and peers with many friends as popular. Moreover, popular peers’ perceptions about who is popular influenced their own perceptions. The influence of friends' perceptions about who is popular were greater for younger adolescents, and they also transferred their popularity perceptions to friends of popular classmates more often than older adolescents. Lastly, gender segregation was greater for younger adolescents, being more likely to choose as friends and perceive as popular other same-gender classmates. These results highlight that the group of friends have a greater influence during early adolescence. Moreover, there would be a greater popularity contagion effect at these ages. Being close to the popular would have a positive impact on one's own popularity. This could explain why early adolescents imitate the behaviors of their popular classmates. Future programs should adopt a developmental perspective to improve adolescents’ social skills and dynamics.

Cyberbullying is one of the most widespread risky behaviors among adolescents. It is often an online continuation of offline bullying. Recent literature (Marinoni, 2025; Marinoni et al., 2023) has provided some evidence that, likewise for bullying, authoritative parenting style, based on sharing and listening, and communal goals, aimed to establish relationships with peers based on empathy and inclusion, are protective factors against perpetrating cyberbullying. The role of social status among peers, however, is understudied in relation to cyberbullying. Peer status may not only increase (perceived popularity) or mitigate (social preference) cyberbullying, but also buffer (perceived popularity) or magnify (social preference) the influences of protective factors, like already found for the offline bullying (e.g., Caravita & Cillessen, 2012). This study aims to analyze the longitudinal associations between parenting authoritative style, communal goals, and peer status (perceived popularity and social preference) with cyberbullying by estimating cross-lagged models. Peer status will be also investigated as possible moderator of the associations between authoritative style and communal goals with cyberbullying. Participants are 605 adolescents (42.47% girls; Mage = 15.63 years, SD = 1.251) who answered self-report measures assessing parenting style and social goals, and peer-nominations of perceived popularity and social preference. First analyses have confirmed the negative longitudinal associations of authoritative style and communal goals with cyberbullying. We expect that perceived popularity will be associated positively and social preference will be associated negatively with cyberbullying and that perceived popularity will mitigate and social preference will magnify the associations between authoritative style and communal goals with cyberbullying. This study is expected to provide important information on the role of status among peers as protective or risk factor for cyberbullying. Results will be discussed in light of possibilities to prevent cyberbullying with interventions that take into account peer dynamics within classrooms, besides individual and family factors.

Most research on peers focuses on children and adolescents in classrooms, a well-defined context in which youth spend most of their time. Emerging adults, however, also still spend a lot of time with peers as they move away from home. Because they have more autonomy to decide how they spend their time, their peer groups may exist in various contexts. Yet, studies of emerging adults mostly have examined friendships and romantic relationships rather than the broader peer group. The goal of this study was to gain insight into the peer groups in emerging adulthood by examining 1) the various contexts in which emerging adults’ peer groups exist, 2) the characteristics of these peer groups, and 3) the role of popularity and likeability. Participants were 521 Dutch-speaking emerging adults (M = 21.27 years, 64% female). We asked participants about the contexts in which they may interact with peers (school, work, sports, hobby clubs, communities, friends). If participants interacted with 1 or more peers in a context, they also reported their time spent with peers, importance, enjoyment, self-selection, and status in each context. Results show that most emerging adults (60%) reported having peer groups in 2 or 3 contexts. School (68%) and friends (46%) were the most prevalent contexts, although most in-person time was spent in the context of sports (interacting once a week). Importance, enjoyment, self-selection, and likeability were highest in friend groups, whereas popularity was highest in leisure activity contexts. Popularity and likeability were not consistent across contexts, as evidenced by weak to moderate correlations across contexts (popularity: r = .13 – .59; likeability: r = .10 – .66), and significant between-context differences in popularity and likeability. Popularity, but not likeability, more strongly predicted the importance and enjoyment of peer groups that were self-selected than of peer groups that were less self-selected.

Each phase in human development brings along key developmental tasks. Research has long tried to unravel the effects of attaining these tasks earlier in life on performance later in life. Main tasks in childhood and adolescence (CaA) are doing well in school (academic) and getting along with peers (social). In emerging adulthood (EA), central tasks are work and love. The current study investigates whether individuals’ broader academic functioning and peer status in CaA are associated with getting a job, having a romantic relationship, life satisfaction, and health in EA. As these links may be explained by factors regarding the self and the context, we investigate self-esteem and social support as mediators. The current study uses data from 7 waves of the Nijmegen Longitudinal Study, an ongoing study of 129 individuals followed from 18 months of age in 1999 until today. Preliminary regression analyses showed that popularity (β = 0.19, p = .069) and academic functioning (β = 0.18, p = .083) in CaA tended to predict life satisfaction in EA. Social support and self-esteem may be mediators, as there was a marginally significant effect of popularity (β = 0.18, p = .081) and a significant effect of likeability (β = 0.23, p = .028) on social support, and self-esteem was significantly related to life satisfaction (β = 0.28, p = .017). Final analyses will consist of path models in R to test the full model. Our study adds to previous work by providing new insights about: 1) the long-term effects of peer status, especially popularity in CaA, on later development, 2) the effects of broader academic functioning as opposed to norm-based achievement, 3) a longer timespan than most studies, and 4) EA rather than adulthood outcomes. These insights can inform early prevention and intervention efforts to promote later EA development.