The Popular Kids Don’t Matter: Centrality and Influence on Adolescent Behavior

• In Event: 434 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Peer Groups: Formation and Implications

Abstract

This study examines the widely held belief that high status individuals are disproportionately influential in their social networks. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, it models the association between four behavioral outcomes (drinking, smoking, fighting and sports participation) and two distinct specifications of the behaviors’ relationship to popularity structures. This study finds little evidence that popular individuals are more influential than randomly chosen peers from the same network. Students’ behavior resembles that of their peers in systematic ways, but it is unlikely that this is because popular students serve as a reference for the group or because students adjust their actions based on the social rewards that they observe given their position in a social network.

Author

• Timothy Malacarne, Yale University