Standard Deviation vs. Gini Coefficient: Effects of Different Indicators of Classroom Status Hierarchy on Bullying Behavior

Classroom status hierarchy (the degree to which popularity is unequally distributed in a classroom) has often been examined as a predictor of bullying. Although most research has relied on an operationalization of status hierarchy as the classroom standard deviation (SD) of popularity, other fields...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of youth and adolescence 2024-08, Vol.53 (8), p.1875-1885
Main Authors: Malamut, Sarah T., Fenneman, Achiel, Garandeau, Claire F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior - psychology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Bullying
Bullying - psychology
Bullying - statistics & numerical data
Child
Child and School Psychology
Classrooms
Clinical Psychology
Empirical Research
Female
Finland
Health Psychology
Hierarchies
History of Psychology
Humans
Inequality
Law and Psychology
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Operational definitions
Peer Acceptance
Peer Group
Popularity
Prospective Studies
Psychology
Schools
Students - psychology
Students - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:Classroom status hierarchy (the degree to which popularity is unequally distributed in a classroom) has often been examined as a predictor of bullying. Although most research has relied on an operationalization of status hierarchy as the classroom standard deviation (SD) of popularity, other fields (e.g., sociology, economics) have typically measured resource inequality using the Gini coefficient. This multilevel study examines the concurrent and prospective associations of both status hierarchy indicators (referred to as SD-hierarchy and Gini-hierarchy) with peer-reported bullying, controlling for key variables (i.e., the structure of the classroom status hierarchy, average classroom level of popularity). The final sample included 3017 students (45.3% self-identified as a boy; T1 M age  = 13.04, SD = 1.73, approximately 93% born in Finland) from 209 classrooms. Concurrently, classroom SD-hierarchy was positively, linearly associated with bullying, whereas there was a curvilinear (inverted U) association between Gini-hierarchy and bullying. No significant longitudinal associations were found. The findings suggest that Gini-hierarchy provides unique information beyond the SD-hierarchy.
ISSN:0047-2891
1573-6601
1573-6601
DOI:10.1007/s10964-024-01956-1