LGBTQ+ youth make up a significant portion of the United States student population (Conron, 2020). A sense of belonging for middle school students is an essential indicator for academic achievement and positive motivational and health outcomes (Kosciw et al., 2020; Steiner et al., 2019), yet LGBTQ+ students experience less belonging than their…

The well-known associations of peer status (acceptance and rejection) with prosocial and aggressive behaviors have mostly relied on peer status measures assessed at a single time point. This study adopted a person-oriented approach to examine longitudinal links between stable peer status profiles assessed at two time points and prosocial and…

The goal of this study was to advance the conceptualization and measurement of adolescent popularity by exploring the commonly used composite score (popularity minus unpopularity). We used standardized peer nominations from 4,414 early adolescents (ages [approximately equal to] 12-14 years) from three samples collected in two countries. Popularity…

Longitudinal associations between popularity, peer acceptance, and academic performance were examined in Chinese 7th (n = 880; 400 girls; M[subscript age = 13.33, SD = 0.64) and 10th grade (n = 646; 342 girls; M[subscript age] = 16.76, SD = 0.75) adolescents across three academic years. Growth curve analysis revealed parallel changes in popularity…

Research shows that peer relationships are associated with students' school adjustment. However, the importance of advantageous and disadvantageous factors for students' educational outcomes may vary by socioeconomic positioning. Drawing on sociometric and register data from a nationally representative sample of Swedish youth (n = 4996, girls 50%;…

The link between peer exposure and self-regulation is likely to vary as a function of the type and quality of peer interaction. In the presented research study, the relationship between self-regulation and peer acceptance/rejection has been explored. The Means-Ends Problem Solving technique was administered in 1625 cases of lower-secondary school…

The current study examined school variations in academic engagement norms and whether such norms affect those most susceptible to peer influence. We presumed that behaviors associated with perceived popularity make norms salient and are most likely to affect socially marginalized (rejected) youth. Focusing on differences across 26 middle schools,…

Highly visual social media (HVSM) platforms, such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, are increasingly popular among young people. It is unclear what motivates young people to engage with these specific highly visual platforms and what impact the inherent features of HVSM have on young people's mental health. Nine semi-structured focus group…

Self-regulation is a process that may affect the degree of peer rejection but may also be determined by the degree of peer rejection, whereby the degree of acceptance/rejection can influence the processes that lead to the strengthening or weakening of self-regulation. In this study, we concentrate on self-regulatory mechanisms (self-regulated…

Bullying is a goal-directed behavior that has long been in the spotlight of worldwide school mental health programs and research. However, the role of popularity goals in bullying and its potential mechanisms are unclear for adolescents in a non-Western cultural context. Based on 333 Chinese adolescents (52% female), the current study was the…

Introduction: Paving the way towards inclusive education, it is essential to aim for positive social outcomes for all students, including cultivating a positive self-concept and fostering acceptance and friendships with peers. Although self-concept, acceptance and friendships are interrelated, research focussing on the relationship between these…

Whilst research examining transgender identities within educational contexts in recent years has increased, there is limited research focused specifically on transgender and non-binary (TNB) experiences in Physical Education (PE). PE is a context where dominant gendered 'ideals' raise the potential for exclusion for those who do not 'fit'. This…

In adolescence, being rejected by one's peers is positively associated with aggression. However, whether self-perceptions of being rejected or accepted by peers, and biases in these perceptions, are linked to aggression remains unclear, as the literature points to 2 perspectives: Youth are more likely to be aggressive when they (a) know or believe…

The ethnic classroom composition and classmates' ethnic attitudes can affect how students experience their classroom social environment (CSE). Following the imbalance of power thesis and prior research on ethnic attitudes, this cross-sectional study examined if ethnic classroom composition (i.e., proportion of in-group and Herfindahl Index) and…

Schools are critical spaces for young men from refugee backgrounds. They play an integral role in literacy development, educational attainment, and providing a sense of belonging. Inclusive education practices for this group?are?largely absent in Australian schools. Research shows focusing on these young men from a non-deficit position assists…