Particular emphasis is given to the risks and benefits of being popular. The volume reviews research linking popularity to substance use, poor academic performance, and other adjustment problems. Contributors also address the positive side of popularity, including its association with social competence and leadership abilities. Throughout the book, implications for prevention and intervention with adolescents are highlighted.
Popularity as a social concept : meanings and significance / William M. Bukowski -- Conceptualizing and measuring popularity / Antonius H.N. Cillessen, Peter E.L. Marks -- Being there awhile : an ethnographic perspective on popularity / Don E. Merten -- Social acceptance and popularity : two distinct forms of peer status / Lara Mayeux, John J. Houser, Karmon D. Dyches -- Popularity and gender : the two cultures of boys and girls / Amanda J. Rose, Gary C. Glick, Rhiannon L. Smith -- Popularity as a form of social dominance : an evolutionary perspective / Anthony D. Pellegrini [and others] -- Prosocial skills, social competence, and popularity / Julie Wargo Aikins, Scott D. Litwack -- Popularity in peer group perspective : the role of status in adolescent peer systems / B. Bradford Brown -- Peer popularity in the context of ethnicity / Amy Bellmore, Adrienne Nishina, Sandra Graham -- The power of popularity : influence processes in childhood and adolescence / Marlene J. Sandstrom -- The high price of high status : popularity as a mechanism of risk / David Schwartz, Andrea Hopmeyer Gorman -- Toward a theory of popularity / Antonius H.N. Cillessen.