Poster #222 - Being Fun: Peer Status Depends on It

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Everyone likes to have fun, but we know very little about how important being fun is with respect to peer status. Children who are popular are aggressive, disruptive, and attractive (McDonald & Asher, 2018). Children who are well-liked by peers are academically competent, non-aggressive, and non-disruptive (Asher & McDonald, 2009). Popular children and well-liked children share some characteristics, including being friendly, assertive, athletic, and not withdrawn (McDonald & Asher, 2018). It is not clear if high status children are also perceived to be fun. The closest scholars have come to assessing fun are questions about having a good sense of humor (e.g., Bowker & Etkin, 2014). The present study was designed to examine the role of fun in the longitudinal prediction of popularity and likeability.

Participants included 527 fourth (ages 9 and 10) and fifth (ages 10 and 11) grade students attending a public-school representative of the state of Florida in terms of ethnicity and family income. The data were collected from two cohorts, separated by two years. Participants completed identical inventories at two timepoints, 8 to 12 weeks apart. Participants provided unlimited nominations of classmates who best fit the descriptors of fun, popular, and likeable (i.e., like most). Participants also nominated classmates on a host of potentially confounding variables that are known to be linked to popularity and likeability: physical aggression; verbal aggression; academic achievement; prosocial behavior; physically attractive; shy; leader; disruptive; and athletic.

Results indicated that being fun (i.e., the number of fun nominations received) was concurrently correlated with academic achievement, prosocial behavior, attractiveness, leadership, disruptiveness, and athleticism at each time point (see Table 1).

A longitudinal, cross-lagged panel model was conducted with over time predictive associations between fun, popularity, and likeability. Higher initial levels of fun predicted greater subsequent increases in likeability and greater subsequent increases in popularity. Initial popularity and likeability also predicted greater subsequent increases in being perceived as fun. The same pattern of statistically significant results emerged after controlling for each potentially confounding variable. The findings were not moderated by sex.

We conclude that being fun (or at least being perceived as fun) is a boon to a child’s peer relationships, contributing uniquely to heightened popularity and likeability. We can only speculate as to what might make a child fun in the eyes of his or her peers. Having a good sense of humor is certainly one possibility. Fun children may have a pleasant constellation of personality traits (e.g., high extraversion, high openness, and high agreeableness). Fun children may be socially adept and they may be high on surgency, active, engaged with the environment and full of positive affect.

Authors

• Robert Larry Altman, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Li Wei, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda Gaudree, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brett Laursen, Florida Atlantic University
  Non-Presenting Author