Longitudinal Associations of Electronic Aggression and Victimization with Social Standing During Adolescence

Prior empirical work has documented that the dynamics of social standing can play a critical role in the perpetration and
receipt of aggression during adolescence. Recently, investigators have emphasized the emergence of new, electronic modalities
for aggressive acts. Our longitudinal project therefore considered electronic forms of aggression and victimization as correlates
of social standing. We recruited 415 ninth grade students (53 % female) from a high school in Southern California. In the
spring of two consecutive school years, participants completed peer nominations assessing their social standing, aggression,
and victimization. More popular youths were concurrently more electronically aggressive and victimized than their peers. Popularity
also was associated with increases in electronic aggression over time. In turn, electronic aggression was related to increases
in popularity for girls and decreases for boys. We additionally found concurrent, positive associations between social acceptance
and electronic forms of aggression and victimization, although these effects held only at the first time point. Among adolescent
males, social acceptance also was related to increases in electronic victimization over time. Overall, our results suggest
that adolescents may rely on electronic aggression to establish and maintain a privileged position in their peer hierarchy.
Our results additionally highlight that popular and accepted youths, who likely possess a large, digitally-connected social
network, may be at increased risk for electronic victimization.