Sociometry as a method for investigating peer relationships: what does it actually measure?

Abstract

In sociometric research tradition, popularity is defined as the degree to which children are liked or accepted by their peers. However, research indicates that two definitions of popular students should be distinguished: (1) popular students as those students who are well liked by many and disliked by few peers, and (2) popular students as those students who are described as popular by their peers. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity in Slovenian students of different grades of elementary and secondary school. Additionally, the age differences in the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity were examined. Another purpose of the study was to investigate the differential relationships between concepts of popularity and some students' characteristics. The participants were 321 boys and 329 girls who ranged from the 5th grade of elementary school (the mean age 11.04 years) to the 3rd grade of secondary school (the mean age 17.02 years). The results of this study confirm previous findings that peer perceived popularity is a construct that is distinct from sociometric popularity. There are some substantial differences in relations between indices of perceived popularity and sociometric indices between elementary school students and secondary school students-i.e. between early adolescents and middle to late adolescents. It seems that perceived popularity and sociometric popularity are rather similar constructs in elementary school students, whereas in secondary school students they become almost unrelated to each other. Based on these findings, the terminological issues are discussed and some conclusions are made.

Social Status Among Peers: From Sociometric Attraction to Peer Acceptance to Perceived Popularity

“…Following the logic of social preference scores, some compute a difference of most popular minus least popular standardized nominations as a measure of perceived popularity (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004a ;Closson, 2009aClosson, , 2009bKo š ir & Pe č jak, 2005 ) or perceived preference (Kuppens, Grietens, Onghena, Michiels, & Subramanian, 2008 ;Lease et al, 2002 ). Most commonly, perceived popularity or preference is treated as a continuous variable, although some have used cutoff scores (typically ± 0.5 or 1 SD) to classify youth into status categories (e.g., Closson, 2009a ;Ko š ir & Pe č jak, 2005 ;Kuppens et al, 2008 ;LaFontana & Cillessen, 1999 ;.…”

“…Sociometric and perceived popularity demonstrate differential links to social behavior (e.g., Babad, 2001 ;Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998 ;Sandstrom & Cillessen, 2006 ), particularly during adolescence (Cillessen & Borch, 2006 ;Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004a ;Ko š ir & Pe č jak, 2005 ;LaFontana & Cillessen, 2002 ;Schwartz et al, 2006 ;Vaillancourt & Hymel, 2006 ). For example, among middle childhood and adolescent students in Italy, colleagues (2009, 2010) found that bullying was associated negatively with sociometric popularity (social preference) but positively with perceived popularity.…”

Pour une meilleure compréhension de l’estime de soi : liens entre la perception de soi et les indicateurs sociométriques

“…Reprenant cette problématique dans une publication plus récente encore, Košir et Pečjak (2005) observent une différence plus marquée entre le statut sociométrique et la popularité perçue par les pairs chez les adolescents. En effet, si les deux évaluations sont moyennement corrélées à l'âge de 11 ans, elles apparaissent comme indépendantes chez les élèves de 17 ans.…”

Tko Je Popularan U Ranoj Adolescenciji? Povezanost Percipirane Popularnosti Sa Spolom I Usamljenosti

“…Koristeći se nominacijama sviđanja i nesviđanja, istraživači mogu odrediti položaj sudionika na dvjema dimenzijama. Oduzimanjem broja nominacija sviđanja i nesviđanja razlikujemo djecu i adolescente na dimenziji socijalne preferencije, a njihovim zbrajanjem na dimenziji socijalnog utjecaja (Košir i Pečjak, 2005.). Kombiniranjem standardiziranih rezultata na navedenim dvjema dimenzijama dobivamo pet sociometrijskih kategorija.…”