Social goals and bullying: Examining the moderating role of self-perceived popularity, social status insecurity and classroom variability in popularity

The positive relationship between popularity goals and bullying in early adolescence is documented in many studies. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between student social goals of two types (popularity and social preference) and bullying in a diverse sample of early and middle adolescents. Additionally, we aimed to investigate both individual (self-perceived popularity and social status insecurity) and classroom-level (the classroom variability in self-perceived popularity) moderators of the relationship between popularity goals and bullying. A total of 2039 students (59.48% girls; mean age 15.48 years) nested within 106 classrooms participated in the study. Using a cross-sectional research design, we found that popularity goals were a positive predictor of bullying, while social preference goals were a negative predictor. Self-perceived popularity and social status insecurity were found to moderate the relationship between popularity goals and bullying; higher levels of bullying were reported by students with high popularity goals and high self-perceived popularity or high social status insecurity. In addition, popularity goals were a stronger predictor of bullying for students in classrooms with higher classroom variability in self-perceived popularity.