A Longitudinal Latent Profile Analysis of Adolescent Popularity: A Test of the Bistrategic Hypothesis

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.