Not Getting What You Want

Abstract. As adolescents desire the benefits of having greater social status, some teenagers cannot acquire their desired level of popularity. The current study uses a single high school to examine how the discrepancy between popularity goals and actual popularity aligns with aggression and prosocial behaviors. The current study suggests that the discrepancy between popularity and popularity goals aligns with having more aggression and prosocial behaviors when adolescents are in less popular peer groups. Within one’s own peer group, adolescents with greater discrepancy between popularity and popularity goals utilize more aggression. The results provide additional insight toward understanding how pursuing popularity might align with using aggression and prosocial behaviors toward peers in school.