Peer-Assessed Emotional Expressivity: Unique Association With Status in the Peer Group

Abstract

We examined the association between peer-assessed emotional expressivity and children’s status in the peer group after controlling for social behavior. Participants were 417 elementary school children ( $\bar{X}$ age = 10 years) from a Midwestern urban community and their teachers. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used. After controlling for gender, race, and other emotionality, happiness was positively associated with likability and popularity. Sadness was positively associated with disliking and unpopularity, and negatively associated with popularity. Anger was positively associated with disliking and popularity. Overall, emotional expressivity uniquely predicted status after controlling for social behavior. Regarding gender and race effects, girls were perceived as happier than boys and an inverse pattern was found for anger; White children were perceived as happier than Black children. The association between emotionality and status did not differ by gender. Findings expand the literature on predictability of peer-assessed emotions regarding different dimensions of status in the peer group.

Keywords

emotions gender peer nominations peer status social behavior

Emotions are an inherent part of social interactions and relationships. According to Campos, Campos, and Barrett (1989), emotions are signaled within social interactions and events that are significant to an individual, and emotions function to channel behavioral responses. The relational and functional nature of emotions has been emphasized in the study of children’s emotional development. For example, the link between emotions and social behavior has been well established (Murphy, Shepard, Eisenberg, & Fabes, 2004). Also, children’s positive and negative emotional characteristics elicit different degrees of social attraction from peers (Dougherty, 2006).

Children’s status in the peer group (e.g., the degree to which a child is liked or disliked by peers) has significant developmental outcomes (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003). However, as compared with social/behavioral correlates of different dimensions of status (likability, disliking, popularity, unpopularity; Gorman, Schwartz, Nakamoto, & Mayeux, 2011; Mayeux, Houser, & Dyches, 2011), little is known regarding emotional correlates of status. Also, the perspectives of peers have been underutilized in children’s emotional assessment. The goal of this study was to examine whether peer-referenced children’s emotional expressivity is uniquely associated with status after taking into account the contribution of social behavior to status. In addition, we examined the effect of gender and race in emotional expressivity and the moderating effect of gender in the association between emotional expressivity and status.

Peer-Referenced Assessment of Children’s Emotion

Peers are natural observers of others in the social group, and unlike parents or teachers, they are uniquely positioned to judge others’ social and emotional qualities as an equal social partner (Kellam & Van Horn, 1997). Likewise, peer interpretations of others’ emotional expressivity are based on peer-to-peer relationships that cannot otherwise be captured by adults. Also, given that peers are a major part of daily social interactions among school-age children, it appears important to consider peer perspectives in the assessment of children’s emotions.

The use of peer-referenced assessment of children’s emotions has been limited with some exceptions (Perry-Parrish, Waasdorp, & Bradshaw, 2012; Perry-Parrish et al., 2015; Perry-Parrish & Zeman, 2011). For example, Perry-Parrish and colleagues (2012) found that peer nominations of negative emotional expressivity (i.e., being sad, being afraid, and crying) were associated with higher levels of externalizing behaviors and lower levels of social competence as rated by teachers. However, it should be noted that they focused on negative and anxious types of emotions and did not examine externalizing emotions (i.e., anger) or positive emotions (i.e., happiness).

Emotions and Children’s Status in the Peer Group

Children are drawn to those who display positive affect and are repelled by those who display negative emotions. According to a meta-analytic study, there is a small to moderate degree of negative association between negative emotionality (e.g., sadness, anger, fear) and likability (i.e., the degree to which children are liked by peers), and a small degree of positive association between positive emotionality (e.g., happiness, joy, contentment) and likability (Dougherty, 2006).

Although little is known regarding emotional correlates of popularity, or social prominence among children, personality literature provides some insight on this. For example, Anderson, John, Keltner, and Kring (2001) examined the association between the Big Five personality traits and social status among college students. They defined social status as prominence, respect, and influence (i.e., popularity as opposed to likability) in informal social groups (i.e., fraternity, sorority, and dormitory). Findings indicated that extraversion, characterized by positive emotionality, was associated with elevated social status for both sexes. On the contrary, neuroticism, characterized by negative emotionality, was associated with lower status for males only. They further found that facial expressions of negative emotions (e.g., sadness, fear, embarrassment, disgust, and anger) were negatively associated with status for males only.

Research on social and behavioral correlates of peer status indicates that each status indicator—likability, disliking, popularity, unpopularity—is a unique dimension of peer status. Likability and popularity are distinct in that well-liked children are primarily characterized by prosocial characteristics (e.g., kind, sharing), whereas popular children are characterized by a combination of prosocial and aggressive characteristics (Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). Likewise, Gorman et al. (2011) documented the distinction between disliking and unpopularity. Specifically, disliking was positively associated with aggression and relational victimization, and it was negatively associated with prosociality. Unpopularity was positively associated with victimization, withdrawal, and prosociality. It might be that disliked children engage in aversive behaviors (e.g., aggression), whereas unpopular children do not. Despite the evidence on social behavioral correlates of each status, evidence on emotional correlates of status tends to be limited to likability. Furthermore, it is not clear whether emotion has unique predictability of status above and beyond the contribution of social behavior.

Gender and Race Effects in Emotions

Gender difference has been documented in emotional expression. According to a meta-analysis (Chaplin & Aldao, 2013), girls were generally found to express more positive and internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness) than boys, whereas the opposite pattern was found for externalizing emotions (e.g., anger). The associations were moderated by age in that girls were found to express more externalizing emotions than boys in adolescence, and gender difference in internalizing emotions diminished in adolescence.

Evidence appears sparse and inconsistent regarding the moderating effect of gender in the association between emotion and status. Among middle school students, moderating effects of gender were found in the association between sadness regulation and peer acceptance (Perry-Parrish & Zeman, 2011), whereas such effects were not found in the association between anger regulation and peer acceptance (Perry-Parrish et al., 2015). Also, the moderating effect of gender was found in the association between negative emotionality and popularity among college students (Anderson et al., 2001). It might be that the gender moderation depends on the type of emotions and individuals’ developmental stage.

Although limited, race effect has received some research attention in children’s emotions. For example, Perry-Parrish and colleagues (2012) found that White children received more nominations than did Black children for sadness and fear. However, it should be noted that the findings were based on a sample that consisted of primarily Black children (85%).

The Present Study

First, we examined whether emotional expressivity (happiness, anger, sadness) has unique predictability of children’s status in the peer group (likability, disliking, popularity, unpopularity) after controlling for social behavior. In general, we hypothesized that happiness would be associated with higher status indicators (i.e., likability, popularity), whereas negative emotional expressivity (anger and sadness) would be associated with lower status indicators (i.e., disliking, unpopularity). Although evidence is limited to make a specific hypothesis, emotional correlates of popularity were of particular interest. Specifically, a potential association between anger and popularity was hypothesized given the link among anger, aggression, and popularity. That is, anger is a major component of aggression, and popularity has been linked to aggression (Mayeux et al., 2011). At the same time, anger appears more pronounced for reactive aggression than proactive aggression (Hubbard, McAuliffe, Morrow, & Romano, 2010), and popular children tend to use aggression proactively rather than reactively (Aikins & Litwack, 2011). Furthermore, popular children are characterized by a combination of prosocial and aggressive behaviors (Mayeux et al., 2011). Together, the association between emotional expressivity and popularity might be complex but intriguing. Second, we examined gender and race differences in emotional expressivity and also examined whether gender moderates the association between emotional expressivity and status. Given the limited evidence on the moderating effect of gender, we examined the question in an exploratory manner.

Method

Participants

Participants included 417 fourth- through sixth-grade children (52% female), and their general education classroom teachers (N = 23) from elementary schools located in an urban Midwestern city and a close suburb. The average age of children was 10 years (SD = .9 years). According to school record, 60% of the children were Black, 26% were White, and 14% were Other (i.e., Hispanic, Asian, and Native American). Regarding teacher demographic characteristics, 70% of the teachers were female; 65% reported as White/non-Hispanic, and 35% reported as Black. They reported an average of 11 years (SD = 8.8) of teaching experience.

Given that peer nominations were completed by classroom, we reported the gender and race composition of classrooms. Across the 23 classrooms, the gender composition was fairly even with four exceptions wherein one gender comprised 61% to 71% of the class. Black comprised a majority of the class in 11 out of 23 classrooms (58%-100%) and White comprised a majority in two classrooms (56% and 82%).

Procedures

We obtained approval of the study procedures from the Institutional Review Board of the university where the study was conducted. Active parent consent and child assent were obtained; the consent rate for the participating classrooms ranged from 65% to 88% (average of 77%). Groups of two or three research team members administered the questionnaires in the classroom. One team member read the survey aloud while the others provided individual assistance as necessary. The administration was completed within 60 minutes. Teachers also provided consent for their participation and completed a questionnaire for each participating student.

Measures

Peer-assessed emotions

Based on a peer nomination procedure, children listed up to three peers in their classroom who fit the descriptions of being happy, sad, and angry (e.g., this person is often happy/sad/angry). The number of nominations each child received was summed and standardized ( $\bar{X}$ = 0, SD = 1) within each class to control for the different class size. We used limited as opposed to unlimited peer nominations: Children, on average, were found to nominate three when unlimited nominations (i.e., up to 10 spaces for nominations) were used (Kwon, Lease, & Hoffman, 2012). The validity of the peer nomination in the assessment of children’s emotions has been documented (Perry-Parrish et al., 2012).

Social behavior

The Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales–Teacher Form (SSIS-RST; Gresham & Elliott, 2008) was used to measure Social Skills and Internalizing Problems.¹ Social Skills were measured with 26 items (e.g., Interacts well with other children) that tap into Communication, Empathy, Engagement, and Self-Control. Internalizing Problems were measured with seven items (e.g., Withdraws from others). Teachers rated students on how often they engage in a certain behavior ranging from never (1) to almost always (4). The reliabilities, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha, were .97 for Social Skills and .86 for Internalizing Problems for the current sample.

Status in the peer group

A peer nomination procedure, as described above, was used to assess status in the peer group (Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). It included Like-Most (Who do you like to play with the most?), Like-Least (Who do you like to play with the least?), Most-Popular (Who are most popular?), and Least-Popular (Who are least popular?). The number of nominations each child received was summed and standardized ( $\bar{X}$ = 0, SD = 1) within each class.

Results

Data Preparation and Analysis Overview

We screened data for several statistical assumptions. First, the correlations among predictor variables did not suggest any collinearity problems. Second, a violation of assumption was indicated regarding the normality of residuals. To address this, we conducted the regression analyses using Mplus Version 6.1 statistical software based on maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2010). Third, we examined intraclass correlations (ICCs) to consider the hierarchical structure of the data (i.e., students being nested within classrooms). The ICCs were calculated for teacher-ratings only because the peer nomination variables were standardized within each class. The ICCs were greater than .10, indicating a violation of the assumption of independent observations. Accordingly, we used Type = Complex in Mplus to take into account clustering (i.e., classroom) in the calculation of standard errors.

Preliminary Analysis

The descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations for the study variables are summarized in Table 1. Also, we examined the effect of gender and race (Black, White, Other) on children’s emotions. Gender difference was found in Happiness, t(381) = −5.76, p < .001, and Anger, t(381) = 3.42, p = .001. Girls ( $\bar{X}$ = 0.25, SD = 1.09) scored higher than boys ( $\bar{X}$ = −0.27, SD = 0.74) in Happiness, and boys ( $\bar{X}$ = 0.17, SD = 1.07) scored higher than girls ( $\bar{X}$ = −0.16, SD = 0.85) in Anger. Race effect was found in Happiness only, F(2, 414) = 6.39, p = .002; White children ( $\bar{X}$ = 0.28, SD = 1.11) scored higher than Black ( $\bar{X}$ = −0.12, SD = 0.89) children.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations of Study Variables.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Happiness	—	−.25**	−.35**	.36**	−.30**	.40**	−.30**	.25**	−.25**
2. Sadness		—	.26**	−.12	.35**	−.23**	.45**	−.27**	.47**
3. Anger			—	−.42**	.34**	−.08	.36**	.06	.15*
4. Social Skills				—	−.54**	.14*	−.26**	−.03	−.14*
5. Internalizing Problems					—	−.23**	.34**	−.19**	.32**
6. Like-Most						—	−.38**	.52**	−.42**
7. Like-Least							—	−.23**	.62**
8. Most-Popular								—	−.49**
9. Least-Popular									—
$\bar{X}$ (SD)	0.00 (098)	0.01 (0.97)	0.00 (0.98)	2.99 (0.67)	1.48 (0.50)	0.00 (0.98)	0.00 (0.98)	0.00 (0.97)	0.01 (0.98)
Minimum	−1.59	−1.47	−1.38	1	1	−1.98	−2.47	−1.37	−1.22
Maximum	3.05	4.29	3.47	4	4	2.91	3.25	3.05	3.67

p < .01. **p < .001.

Unique Predictability of Status From Emotion After Controlling for Social Behavior

The predictor variables were entered in a hierarchical manner. Demographic variables were entered in Step 1, followed by social behavior variables in Step 2 and emotion variables in Step 3 (see Table 2). We included the interaction between emotional expressivity and gender in the final step. None of the interaction effects were statistically significant; thus, we did not present the results for parsimony.

Table 2.

Hierarchical Regression Analyses of Predicting Status From Emotional Expressivity After Controlling for Social Behavior.

Predictors	Like-Most			Like-Least			Most-Popular			Least-Popular
Predictors	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β	B	SE B	β
Step 1
Female	−.04	.10	.02	−.19	.10	−.10	.14	.09	.07	−.37	.09	−.19**
White	.17	.11	.08	−.17	.10	−.08	−.05	.11	−.02	−.01	.11	−.00
Other	−.07	.13	−.02	.05	.14	.02	−.10	.15	−.04	.16	.14	.06
R²	.01			.02			.01			.04
Step 2
Social Skills	.03	.08	.02	−.15	.08	−.10	−.29	.09	−.20*	.11	.08	.08
Internalizing	−.44	.11	−.22**	.57	.12	.29**	−.58	.10	−.30**	.72	.12	.37**
R²	.06*			.13**			.07*			.15**
Step 3
Happiness	.39	.05	.39**	−.09	.04	−.09	.26	.05	.26**	−.08	.04	−.08
Sadness	−.12	.05	−.12	.34	.06	.34**	−.21	.04	−.21**	.40	.06	.40**
Anger	.10	.05	.10	.18	.06	.18*	.21	.05	.21**	−.06	.06	−.06
R²	.20**			.30**			.18**			.30**

p < .01. **p < .001.

Like-Most

Neither gender nor race was significantly related to peer-nominated Like-Most, or the degree to which a child is liked by peers. Internalizing Problems were negatively correlated with Like-Most. Happiness was positively related to Like-Most. The model explained 20% of the variance in Like-Most, 14% of which was uniquely explained by emotional expressivity.

Like-Least

Neither gender nor race was significantly related to Like-Least, or the degree to which a child is disliked by peers. Internalizing Problems were positively related to Like-Least. In addition, Sadness and Anger were positively related to Like-Least. The model explained a total of 30% of the variance in Like-Least, 17% of which was uniquely explained by emotional expressivity.

Most-Popular

Neither gender nor race was significantly related to Most-Popular, or the degree to which a child is perceived as popular among peers. Social Skills and Internalizing Problems were negatively related to Most-Popular. Happiness and Anger were positively related to and Sadness was negatively related to Most-Popular. The model explained a total of 18% of the variance in Most-Popular, 11% of which was uniquely explained by emotional expressivity.

Least-Popular

A significant gender effect was found in the degree to which a child is perceived as unpopular among peers: Boys were perceived as more unpopular than girls. Internalizing Problems were positively related to Least-Popular. Sadness was positively related to Least-Popular. The model explained 30% of the variance in Least-Popular, 15% of which was uniquely explained by emotional expressivity.

Gender as a moderator

None of the interaction terms between emotional expressivity and gender were significant, suggesting that the association between emotional expressivity and status is not different for boys and girls.

Suppression Effects

Results indicated several suppression effects. A suppressor variable is either uncorrelated or weakly correlated with the dependent variable but is significantly correlated with other independent variables that are significantly correlated with the dependent variable. When a suppressor is included in the regression model with other predictors, it accounts for the outcome variance that is irrelevant to the other predictors. As a result, a suppressor improves the weight of regression coefficients of the other predictors and the overall predictive power of the model (Pandey & Elliott, 2010).

As shown in Table 2, Anger was a suppressor for Happiness and Sadness in predicting Most-Popular. The bivariate correlation between Anger and Most-Popular was nonsignificant; however, in the regression model, Anger improved the beta weights of Happiness and Sadness, and its association with Most-Popular became significant and positive. Social Skills were a suppressor for Internalizing Problems in predicting Most-Popular. Whereas the bivariate correlation between Social Skills and Most-Popular was nonsignificant, it improved the beta weights of Internalizing Problems, and its association with Most-Popular became significant and negative. The results indicate that the association between a suppressor and a dependent variable might not be adequately estimated by bivariate correlations; rather, more accurate estimation can be achieved by including other related independent variables in the regression model.

Discussion

Findings indicate that peer-assessed emotional expressivity is significantly associated with children’s status in the peer group. In addition, emotional expressivity explained unique and substantial amount of variance in status above and beyond the contribution of social behavior. In other words, despite the close link between emotions and social behavior, emotion plays a unique role in predicting children’s status in the peer group. Happiness was associated with favorable status indicators: Children perceived as happier were more liked by and more popular among peers. Sadness was associated with three out of the four status indicators: Children who were perceived as sadder were less popular among peers, and they were also more disliked by and unpopular among peers. Whereas anger was not significantly associated with likability, it was significantly and positively related to disliking. This indicates that children who display a higher level of anger are prone to active rejection by peers. Furthermore, despite a nonsignificant bivariate correlation between anger and popularity, anger was significantly and positively related to popularity, after controlling for gender, race, and other emotions (i.e., happiness, sadness).

Popular children have been characterized as displaying a combination of both prosocial and aggressive behaviors (Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). Likewise, popularity was positively associated with both happiness and anger in this study. It might be that the association between anger and popularity is masked by the divergent characteristics of popular children when the association was examined at the bivariate level. The significant and positive association between anger and popularity, after controlling for other emotions, indicates that anger might be a subtle but significant affective characteristic of popular children.

In a meta-analytic review study, Dougherty (2006) found that the magnitude of association was similar between different types of negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness, and fear) and peer liking. However, we found that sadness is generally more disadvantageous to status than is anger. That is, children who displayed a higher level of sadness not only were perceived as less favorable by peers (lower levels of popularity), but they also were actively disliked and perceived as unpopular among peers.

Several significant gender and race effects were found in children’s emotional expressivity. Consistent with a meta-analytic review (Chaplin & Aldao, 2013), girls were perceived as happier than boys, and boys were perceived as angrier than girls. According to gender stereotypes literature, the gender difference in emotional expressivity might be partly attributed to children’s perceived gender stereotypes in emotionality (Birnbaum, Nosanchuk, & Croll, 1980). Also, gender difference in internalizing emotions was found to decrease in adolescence (Chaplin & Aldao, 2013). Similarly, we did not find a gender effect in sadness; it might be that gender difference in this area emerges during early adolescence. Interestingly, despite the decrease of gender difference in internalizing emotions, gender difference in depression, to which internalizing emotions are closely linked, emerges in adolescence (Nolen-Hoeksema & Girgus, 1994). It might be that the development of depression involves more complex factors than emotions. Regarding race effects, we found a difference in happiness only in that White children were perceived as happier than Black counterparts. However, given the limited evidence in race difference in emotionality among children, more empirical evidence is warranted to better understand the race difference in children’s emotionality.

Prior research indicates that gender and race play a role in peer nominations. For example, children tend to nominate more same-gender peers than opposite-gender peers (Card, Hodges, Little, & Hawley, 2005). Also, peer perceptions of Black children were affected by their racial representation in the classroom such that they were perceived more positively by peers as the number of Black children increased in the classroom; however, this pattern was not found for White children (Jackson, Barth, Powell, & Lochman, 2006). In our study, the gender composition was fairly even for the majority of classrooms. Also, the majority of Black children came from classrooms where their race was highly represented; therefore, it does not appear that their nominations were negatively affected by racial minority status in the classroom.

Despite some gender differences in emotionality, our results did not indicate that emotional expressivity is differently associated with status between boys and girls. Although inconsistent, some of the evidence on such moderating effects were found among middle school students (Perry-Parrish & Zeman, 2011) and college students (Anderson et al., 2001). Our study sample consisted of elementary school children, and the differential association by gender might not emerge until later in development. However, more empirical evidence is warranted before making a generalization.

The suppression effects found in the study allowed a more accurate assessment of the associations among the study variables. For example, despite a nonsignificant bivariate correlation between anger and popularity, a significant and positive association between the two emerged when happiness and sadness were controlled. Also, despite a nonsignificant bivariate correlation between social skills and popularity, a significant and negative association between the two was found when internalizing problems were controlled. In other words, children who are popular among peers were perceived by teachers as less socially skilled. This suggests that children and teachers have diverging views regarding what makes a child popular. Overall, when a suppression effect exists, the nonsignificant or weak bivariate correlation provides limited and potentially misleading information. Inclusion of suppressor variables, indeed, increases accuracy of regression coefficients, improves predictive power of the regression model, and contributes to theory building (Pandey & Elliott, 2010).

Due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, the results cannot be interpreted in terms of the direction or causality. A longitudinal study design is needed to establish the direction of the association. Despite the limitation, findings add to the growing evidence that peers serve as an important source in the assessment of children’s emotions. We also extended the literature on emotional correlates of status by examining both positive and negative dimensions of status and by demonstrating the unique contribution of emotional expressivity to status above and beyond the contribution of social behavior. Findings support the importance of addressing children’s emotions along with social behavior to help children struggling with peer relationships.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by grants awarded to Dr. Kyongboon Kwon from the Society for the Study of School Psychology and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Notes

Author Biographies

Kyongboon Kwon is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has a specialization in school psychology, and her research focuses on children’s socialization in the peer group and social and emotional development.

Jessica B. Willenbrink is a PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has a specialization in school psychology, and her research interests include children’s school-related functioning and mindfulness practice in schools.

Amanda R. Hanrahan is a PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has a specialization in school psychology, and her research interests include children’s popularity and intervention of high-risk children.

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