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Social status and wanting popularity: different relationships with academic motivation and achievement

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Abstract

The academic consequences of being popular are well established, but much less is known about the academic consequences of desiring to be popular. Extant research on popularity goals only focuses on the implications for students’ school engagement, help-seeking, and academic achievement. The current study expands these findings by examining the interplay between social status, popularity goals, academic motivation, and academic performance. The current study examined 349 9th–12th graders from a single US school using a questionnaire assessing students’ social status, popularity goals, academic achievement goals, and mindset as well as overall GPA and language arts achievement. The results suggest that social status and popularity goals have different academic motivation and achievement outcomes, with social status relating to achievement and popularity goals aligning with performance goals. Thus, having social status and having popularity goals may have key and differential implications for academic outcomes.

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Data availability

Data and materials used in the study may be available by contacting the first author depending on all applicable human rights and legal considerations.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to the SMAART research group at the University of New Mexico for data entry. Special thanks to David B. Estell, PhD for helping inspire this work before his passing.

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  1. Department of Individual, Family and Community Education, University of New Mexico, MSC 05 3040, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Martin H. Jones & Toby J. Cooke

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  1. Martin H. Jones
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Both authors contributed to the manuscript’s literature review, method, discussion, and conclusion sections. The first author contributed more to these sections than the second author.

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Correspondence to Martin H. Jones.

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Jones, M.H., Cooke, T.J. Social status and wanting popularity: different relationships with academic motivation and achievement. Soc Psychol Educ 24, 1281–1303 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09653-8

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