Poster #65 - Popularity, Likability, and Academic Achievement in Chinese Adolescents: Correlations and Developmental Processes

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Although popularity has been negatively associated with academic achievement for U.S. and Western European youth, these associations are typically opposite for Chinese adolescents. Surprisingly, there have been few longitudinal studies of the association between popularity and academic status as measured by test scores. In this study, we explored the developmental processes between academic achievement and popularity and likability in Chinese youth. Our study contributes to the literature in four aspects: 1) We included both popularity and likability in the same model and assessed their unique contributions to academic achievement; 2) Most studies have used only middle or high school populations whereas we included both and compared their differences; 3) We applied advanced analytical strategies to address the problems in traditional longitudinal analyses (e.g., cross-lagged analysis); 4) We controlled for aggression in our analyses because aggression may serve as a confounder in the association between popularity and academic status.

Hypotheses. We expected that initially popular and likable adolescents would also have outstanding academic performance at baseline. Adolescents sustaining higher levels of popularity and likability would also maintain an outperformed academic performance over time. Furthermore, we expected that popularity and likability would predict improved academic status over time, and that academic achievement would predict improved popularity and likability. We anticipated that the associations between academic status and popularity and likability would be stronger for high school youth than for middle school adolescents because of the heavier academic pressure Chinese high school youth might experience.

Method. Three years of data collection (Y1-Y3) included 880 middle school students (400 girls) and 848 high school students (453 girls) from public schools in Lanzhou city, Gansu, China. Popularity, likability, and aggression were peer rated. Academic achievement was obtained from school-recorded year-end exam scores. We applied parallel latent growth curve modeling (PLGCM) and random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM). Adolescents’ initial aggression, sex, and parental education were controlled in the analyses.

Results. The associations among intercepts in PLGCM indicated that academic achievement was positively correlated with popularity and likability in Y1. These associations were stronger for middle than for high school youth. Youth who were popular and likable over three years also sustained higher levels of academic achievement (see correlations among random-intercepts in RI-CLPM). The associations among slopes in PLGCM suggested that adolescents that increased their popularity also increased their academic achievement. Likability, however, only codeveloped with academic achievement for high school students. The effects among within-person variables in RI-CLPM showed that popularity and academic achievement promoted each other’s development in both middle and high school cohorts whereas Y2 academic achievement led to an increase in Y3 likability only for high school youth.

Conclusion. Popularity and likability differently influenced academic achievement in Chinese youth. Although both positively indicated academic competence, only popularity promoted the increases in academic achievement. Academic achievement reversely led to increases in popularity but escalated likability only for high school youth. These findings have implications for the influence of peer status on academic success in a non-Western cultural context.

Authors

• Luhao Wei, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Presenting Author

• Doran C French, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• Mengqian Shen, Purdue University, West Lafayette

• Shenghua Jin