Popularity as an affordance for friendship: The link between group and dyadic experience

The associations between measures of popularity (acceptance, rejection and preference) and friendship were examined in three independent samples of elementary and middle school children. Data were obtained by means of sociometrtc nomination and rating scale procedures, Results reveal that, regardless of measurement technique, acceptance is generally more strongly related to friendship than is either rejection or preference. The size of the association between popularity and friendship decreases with age. Mean comparisons show that popularity is a predictor and/or is temporally antecedent to friendship rather than vice-versa. These results indicate that the association between popularity and friendship derives from their conceptual dependence on the construct of liking.