LAUSR

The academic consequences of being popular are well established, but much less is known about the academic consequences of desiring to be popular. Extant research on popularity goals only focuses on the implications for students’ school engagement, help-seeking, and academic achievement. The current study expands these findings by examining the interplay between social status, popularity goals, academic motivation, and academic performance. The current study examined 349 9th–12th graders from a single US school using a questionnaire assessing students’ social status, popularity goals, academic achievement goals, and mindset as well as overall GPA and language arts achievement. The results suggest that social status and popularity goals have different academic motivation and achievement outcomes, with social status relating to achievement and popularity goals aligning with performance goals. Thus, having social status and having popularity goals may have key and differential implications for academic outcomes.