Status and Social Comparisons Among Adolescents : Popularity in the Age of Social Media

This insightful book examines the differences in the perception of social status and how they impact youth mental health and well-being. Looking at social status from a developmental perspective, the author explores the expansion of opportunities for social comparison and complex social hierarchies driven by social media use.

Focusing on how social status is ever-present across species in the animal world, the book begins by exploring the biology of social status, the biological mechanisms by which it affects health, and how it presents in the spaces in which children and adolescents live e.g., schools, neighbourhoods, and cultures. Case studies of adolescents interviewed about social status are included, as well as a final chapter detailing specific steps to help minimise the effects of hierarchies on health and ways to approach social status differences.

Bridging anthropological, economic, developmental, and psychological literature on children and adolescent social hierarchies, this book is an invaluable guide for parents, educators, and clinicians such as school counsellors, psychologists, pediatricians, pediatric psychiatrists, and other health care providers to better understand and support youth’s behaviour. This will also be of interest for students studying Adolescent Health and Adolescent Development.