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A Gender Prototypicality Theory of Adolescent Peer Popularity

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Abstract

Despite its salience to adolescents and its relevance for behavioral adjustment, there are few theories explaining the development of peer popularity. In this article, the authors present a gender prototypicality theory of the development of popularity. Popularity refers to social visibility, power, and prestige among peers. Gender prototypicality theory argues that popularity as a distinct form of peer status emerges at the transition to adolescence, as a byproduct of intensifying cross-sex peer interactions and competition for opposite-sex attention as romantic development intensifies. The theory further argues that popularity will be ascribed disproportionately to young adolescents who conform to gender-typical roles in appearance, behavior, and other features, as these youth are more likely to attract the opposite-sex attention that contributes to social status among peers. Given the salience of emerging romantic interactions at this developmental period, adolescents who are leading the way in spending time with the opposite sex are likely to garner considerable attention from peers. This confluence of events begins the process of consolidation of social power into a relatively small proportion of the peer group.

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Notes

  1. We use the term “gender prototypical” to refer to observable attributes of the individual that conform to cultural norms for that particular sex—for example, physical features (e.g., long hair for girls), styles of dress or appearance (e.g., athletic jerseys for boys, feminine clothing such as dresses for girls), and behaviors that are salient to the peer group (e.g., physical toughness and athleticism for boys, prosocial behavior for girls). We are not referring to the psychological sense of gender typicality that is often measured in studies of gender development (e.g., Egan and Perry 2001), though we suspect the two would be positively correlated.

  2. We do not argue that sexual minority youth cannot or do not participate in the social dynamics of peer popularity or the popular crowd. However, current research evidence suggests that LGBT adolescents are more likely to fall on the low end of the peer status spectrum, rather than on the high end (Johns et al. 2019). Furthermore, as a significant numerical minority, their emerging romantic relationship dynamics are unlikely to have the kind of wide-ranging influence on the peer group that the dominant heterosexual peer culture has.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Amy Bellmore and Molly O’Mealey for their helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this manuscript, as well as the comments of two anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, 455 W. Lindsey Street, Room 705, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Lara Mayeux & Margaret Kleiser

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LM conceived of the theory presented here and drafted the manuscript; MK contributed to the development of the theory and helped to draft the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Mayeux, L., Kleiser, M. A Gender Prototypicality Theory of Adolescent Peer Popularity. Adolescent Res Rev 5, 295–306 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-019-00123-z

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