Unpopularity

Unpopularity is the opposite of popularity. Therefore, it is the quality of lacking acceptance or approval by one's peers or society as a whole. Unpopularity is the opposite of popularity. Therefore, it is the quality of lacking acceptance or approval by one's peers or society as a whole. The importance of peer relations in an adolescent's normal psychosocial development has been well-researched. The impact of peers is hardly surprising, given that high school students spend the majority of their days with peers rather than with adults, both during and outside of class. More importantly, peer groups provide contexts separate from the home for experimentation. This makes peers particularly crucial in the development of a sense of identity and a capacity for intimacy. But while normal peer relations are an enjoyable alternative to the home, a subset of adolescents experiences this social network as distinctly unpleasant. These adolescents are considered unpopular or deviant even early in childhood, and are rejected as such. In adolescence, they are uncharacteristic of any crowd and lack the close friendships of their more popular peers. There has been considerable research documenting the effects of peer rejection, such as low academic achievement, delinquent behaviour, and mental health problems in adulthood. Other research has focused on identifying stable subgroups of unpopular adolescents. A common distinction is that made between aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive–withdrawn individuals. However, less is known about how these traits lead aggressive or withdrawn children to become unpopular and to experience later adjustment problems. Indeed, the very causality of this relationship is uncertain, and it is suggested that both behavioural traits and unpopularity are as stable as they are due to various reinforcement processes. Because peer relations are so essential to developing identity and intimacy, the normal psychosocial maturation of unpopular adolescents lags behind their peers. Attempts to 'catch up' by reentry into the dominant network of peer groups are then likely to fail and result in even greater rejection. In seeking to compensate for the lack of peer relations, furthermore, the unpopular adolescent may be forced to turn to other sources of support that cannot replace the peer group and may, in fact, encourage the adolescent's unpopular traits. Indeed, unpopular adolescents may be unable to achieve a genuine sense either of identity or intimacy either in their initial peer relations, or in their attempted compensation involving family members, antisocial contacts, or fantasy. Children who are neglected are not actively rejected by their peers, they are simply ignored. Usually, the neglected child does not enjoy being at school, but the long-term harm does not necessarily result. The child does the best at rebounding from this neglect if they have 'a supportive family and outstanding talent (eg., in music or the arts)' to use as a support system from which to move on. Aggressive-Rejected children are unpopular because, as the name would suggest, are aggressive and confrontational towards others. This type of unpopularity can result in psychological harm to the rejected child and an 'increased risk of depression and uncontrolled anger over the years of middle childhood' Children who are categorised as being aggressive-rejected are the children who are likely to become Bully Victims: People who are attacked or harassed, who then go and attack or harass someone else. They are victims who then become bullies. Withdrawn-Rejected children are rejected by their peers because they are 'timid and anxious.' This type of unpopularity can also result in psychological harm to the rejected child and give them an 'increased risk of depression and uncontrolled anger over the years of middle childhood' To understand the stability of peer rejection, it is first necessary to trace unpopularity back to the original interactions between future antisocial adolescents and their popular peers. Rubin, Chen, McDougall, Bowker, and McKinnon examined the predictability of both withdrawal and aggression. The researchers argued that early social withdrawal as well as aggression can preclude unpopular children from normal levels of social and emotional competence. At the time their study began, withdrawal (often confused with shyness) was not generally considered to predict maladjustment in adolescence and adulthood. Rather than make specific hypotheses, then, the study's aim was to confirm that withdrawn as well as aggressive children suffer from more adolescent maladaptations than popular peers, and also to show that the particular social and emotional problems of each of the two groups are unique.