As children enter adolescence, social status within the peer hierarchy gains importance. Variable-oriented research has linked adolescent popularity with both positive and negative adjustment outcomes. Popularity may be better understood with reference to types or subgroups of similar individuals, identified through person-oriented approaches. Resource Control Theory (RCT: Hawley, 1999) posits three distinct types of popular adolescents: coercive, prosocial, and bistrategic. The existence and adjustment correlates of the prosocial and coercive groups have been well-established, but little evidence supports the existence of a bistrategic popular group of adolescents, and even less is known about their adjustment correlates. The present study aims to confirm the existence of the popularity groups hypothesized by RCT and to identify group differences in social adjustment and problem behaviors. A sample of 568 adolescents (n = 288 girls, 280 boys; M age = 12.50) completed peer nomination procedures and self-report questionnaires in the Fall and Spring of the 7th and 8th grades. Longitudinal latent profile analyses classified adolescents into profile groups on the basis of initial physical aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior, and four time points of popularity spanning the 7th and 8th grades. Repeated measures ANOVAs examined profile group differences in social adjustment (peer acceptance, peer rejection, physical victimization, relational victimization, and preference for solitude) and problem behaviors (disruptiveness and delinquency) across the 7th and 8th grades. Results indicate that adolescents fall into one of four distinct groups: aggressive popular, prosocial popular, bistrategic popular, and average. Bistrategic popular adolescents evinced positive social adjustment, exhibiting the highest levels of popularity and peer acceptance and the lowest levels of peer rejection, victimization, and preference for solitude. Despite their social skill advantages, bistrategic popular adolescents were also at risk for problem behaviors. Bistrategic popular adolescents scored above average on problem behaviors, including physical and relational aggression, disruptiveness, and delinquency. Bistrategic popular adolescents successfully navigate the social world in a manner that both offers hope for positive long-term adjustment and concern for the same. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Adolescent friendships are critical for adjustment but are extremely unstable. Dyadic characteristics may put friendships at risk for dissolution, whereas individual characteristics may put individuals at risk for participating in unstable friendships. The present study examines whether dyadic or individual school-related characteristics predict rates of adolescent friendship dissolution. A sample of 410 adolescents (n=201 males, 209 females; M age=13.20 years) participated in 573 reciprocated friendships originating in the 7th grade which were followed from 8th-12th grade. Discrete-time survival analyses evaluated grade 7 dyadic and individual characteristics (sex, age, ethnicity, number of friends, peer acceptance, peer rejection, leadership, and school competence) as predictors of the occurrence and timing of friendship dissolution. Dissimilarity in sex, peer acceptance, and school competence and similarity in leadership predicted higher rates of friendship dissolution; individual characteristics were not significant predictors. Adolescents seeking friendships with more skilled individuals risk suffering the downside of dissimilarity, namely dissolution. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-170). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-170). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-208). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Not available / text

This study investigates student school transitions during adolescence, and how the maintenance and disruption of social ties during this school change affects students' academic trajectory through high school. School transitions are a compulsory part of the American system of education and are characterized as the movement of students between schools. Students follow these institutional pathways when they change schools, and which pathway followed plays a role in how they adjust to the new school. Some transitions are normative and are a part of the organization of schools, such as the transition from middle to high school. Some involve deviation from the traditional path, such as transferring during high school. In either case, transitions interrupt students' academic trajectory through school and involve a transformation of school-based social relationships that affect academic success. Effects of transitions have been underconceptualized in current empirical research, particularly with regard to the nonacademic realm of schools. This dissertation extends research on school transitions by broadening our understanding of how student movement between institutions affects their academic trajectory and how this is linked to three crucial aspects of student transitions: institutional pathway, social relationships made in schools and the opportunity for new social ties at the receiving school. Results reinforce that both affective attachment and extracurricular involvement are related to students overall academic trajectory. This is the case even after those ties are disrupted and reconfigured by changing schools. Results also suggest that social opportunity at the receiving institution is protective against low academic outcomes in the transition to high school, particularly among students who are socially and academically disengaged in middle school. Finally, results point to similarities among students who follow divergent institutional pathways, either in the transition to high school or for those who transfer during high school. Specifically, these students fare better after a school change by the end of high school, net of where they started academically, if they are disengaged from the sending school.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. App. Psych.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-128).

Thesis (DPsych in Psychology (Counselling Psychology)) -- School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, 2003. / Submitted for the partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctorate in Psychology (Counselling Psychology), School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-200).