As children get older, the social environment begins to play an increasingly important role. Children base their self-image on comparison with peers and the attitude of friends has a greater influence. Especially during adolescence, it’s all about who is popular and who is not.
The concept
Popularity (from popularis , meaning loved) is about whether or not others like someone, and having a high social status. Popular people often have a certain influence on what others like and dislike. Of course, the opposite of popularity is unpopularity. This may involve teasing, excluding, bullying , gossiping, waiting on you, etc. The desire to be popular, or at least not unpopular, can sometimes lead to unpleasant situations, where other children stand by silently as a classmate is mentally or physically humiliated and bullied by the class bullies.
Social groups
In schools, the social aspect is especially important. You often see certain social hierarchies within classes or within groups of children. Researchers Thompson and Cohen made a distinction into six different groups.
Popular children
These are the children who stand out from a group in a positive way. They are the sporty children, the ones who talk a lot or are very attractive. Or it is the children who can simply exercise strong control over classmates. This is mainly due to high social skills, which makes them seen as leaders.
Accepted children
In principle, these children are also popular, but for a different reason. While the popular children are often seen as somewhat frightening, accepted children are seen as kind and non-aggressive. They are not the leaders, but they are held in high esteem. In general, they are smart and somewhat outgoing. They are often very prosocial children, who enjoy helping others with difficult tasks.
Average kids
These children are called both unpopular and unpopular. They don’t belong to either extreme end, but they still have friends.
Ignored children
These children, like the average children, are not mentioned on the high end of popularity. In fact, these children are generally not mentioned anyway when asked who likes whom. They are often the quiet, good students who have little social contact. They are often not noticed by the teachers, which is actually not a positive thing, because they are often somewhat disadvantaged due to their lack of social contacts.
Controversial children
The class clown, the boy who does strange things. These are the controversial children, who are both liked and disliked. It is also the bullies who both instill fear and express kindness. It is the children who go against the teacher when they think something is wrong. They stand up for the class, but in turn they are also mean.
Rejected children
These are the children who are labeled as unpopular. They are most at risk for negative consequences in later life. A distinction can be made between withdrawn children who require little attention and aggressive children who have an outburst when they are bullied and then start throwing things or starting to fight. However, they do not necessarily have to be violent, so it can also involve an emotional outburst.
Bullying behavior
It is mainly the rejected children who are bullied, and this often happens by the popular children or the controversial ones. Bullying is the behavior in which someone is treated poorly psychologically or physically, often over a longer period of time. It may involve swearing, physical violence or extortion. It occurs both at work and at school, but also outside of it, such as in a residential area and in associations. It basically occurs everywhere in the world and is even fairly identical across many countries. Since the growth of the Internet, cyberbullying has also played an increasingly important role, with victims being treated on chats, forums and via e-mail messages.
A distinction must be made with teasing, where teasing is more of a mutual occurrence and is considered less serious. It is unpleasant, but usually the two sides are somewhat equal. In bullying there is less resistance, for example because the victim (there is a clear distinction between bully and victim) is unable to hit back. Moreover, bullying lasts longer than teasing.
Gender differences
Finally, there are differences between the bullying behavior of boys and girls. While boys use physical and bullying behavior more often, bullying among girls is less noticeable. In girls, the behavior is often indirect (e.g. gossiping, excluding and ignoring) and verbal. In addition to men, the physical, more noticeable bullying behavior is also often seen in children and the less educated, while the verbal bullying behavior, in addition to women, is used more by the highly educated and adults.