Although positive peer relationships have been shown to promote healthy school involvement and academic achievement, subpopulations of perceived popular (i.e., socially prominent, high status), but aggressive, youth have been identified who exhibit poor school functioning. The objective of this study was to examine whether attainment of perceived popularity may be a contributing factor in the school difficulties of these aggressive youth. Data were collected from 208 early adolescents (95 boys; 113 girls) during the fall and spring of their fourth- and fifth-grade years. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that, for children with above-average levels of aggression, perceived popularity predicts trajectories of increasing school avoidance and declining academic performance. These results were significant even after accounting for how integrated children were in their social network (i.e., how many friends they had), providing further support to the contention that for aggressive youth, social status serves as a risk factor for school maladjustment.
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