Popularity and Social Preference Pressure From Parents, Friends, and the Media: Linkages to Aggressive and Prosocial Behaviors

Little attention has focused on how adolescents’ perceptions of the pressure to be popular or socially preferred from parents, friends, and the media influence their engagement in face-to-face and cyber aggressive and prosocial behaviors. The present study examined these relationships among 857 seventh graders (M age = 12.19; 50.8% girls) from seven middle schools in the Midwestern United States. Adolescents completed questionnaires on their perceptions of the pressure to be perceived as popular and socially preferred from parents, friends, and the media; their face-to-face and cyber social behaviors; and peer nominations of social preference and popularity. The findings revealed that adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ and friends’ pressure for popularity and social preference related to adolescents’ social behaviors in both the face-to-face and cyber contexts, controlling for social preference and popularity. Gender did not moderate these associations.