Popularity, but not likability, as a risk factor for low empathy: A longitudinal examination of within- and between-person effects of peer status and empathy in adolescence.

This study examined reciprocal relations between two dimensions of peer status, likability and popularity, and two dimensions of empathy, empathic concern and perspective taking, across adolescence. A school-based sample of 893 (Mage = 12.60, SD = 0.62) sixth- (n = 491; 55% female) and seventh-grade (n = 402; 45% female) adolescents from three, rural, lower middle-class schools in the southeastern United States completed self-report and peer-report questionnaires annually at four timepoints. Two trivariate latent curve models with structured residuals were fit. The first model examined within- and between-person associations between popularity, likability, and empathic concern, whereas the second model examined these associations with perspective taking. Results revealed no between-person relations among the latent factors for popularity and empathic concern or perspective taking. Conversely, the latent intercept for likability was positively related to the latent intercept for each of the empathic dimensions. Within-person cross-lagged effects from Grades 6 to 10 revealed that increases in popularity were associated with later decreases in empathic concern, while increases in empathic concern were associated with later decreases in popularity. Within-person changes in popularity did not predict later changes in perspective taking, but increases in perspective taking were associated with decreases in popularity. There were positive, albeit few, predictive associations with changes in likability. Results elucidate key differences in popularity and likability as dimensions of peer status; popular youth may benefit from the flexible use of empathic processes, while likable youth exhibit a stable, enduring propensity for empathic processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).