School Psychology Quarterly 2011, Vol. 26, No. 4, 260-274 © 2011 American Psychological Association 1045-3830/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0025624 Social Prominence and the Heterogeneity of Rejected Status in Late Elementary School Thomas W, Farmer and Cristiti M. Hall The Pennsylvania State University Man-Chi Leung University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill David B, Estell University of Indiana Debra Brooks The Pennsylvania State University The heterogeneity of peer rejection was examined as a function of social prominence in fifth grade classrooms. From an overall sample of 3,891 (1,931 girls) students, 721 youth (424 boys) were identified with rejected status. Social prominence was determined from the aggregation of peer nominations for leader, athletic, eool, and popular. Students with rejected sociometric status were classified into one of three prominence subtypes: high, medium, and low. Prominence subtypes were differentially linked to social behavior and peer affiliations. Although relatively few rejected students had high prominence, those who did tended to have higher levels of peer-assessed aggression, were more likely to be identified as bullies, had lower levels of internalizing behavior, and were less likely to be socially isolated and more likely to associate with socially prominent peers as compared to youth in other rejected status social prominence subtypes. Keywords: peer rejeetion, social prominence, bullying, perceived popularity, social dynamics Students' social acceptance in school is highly related to their long-term adjustment (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998), In partic- ular, children with rejected sociometric status are at risk for school adjustment problems, men- tal health difficulties, substance use problems, school dropout, and involvement in criminality (Kupersmidt, Coie, & Dodge, 1990; Parker & Asher, 1987), However, recent research sug- gests that there is considerable heterogeneity in the social experiences of rejected status chil- dren, particularly with regard to social promi- nence (Lease, Musgrove, & Axelrod, 2002; Vaillancourt & Hymel, 2006), Clarifying differ- ences in the social experiences of subtypes of rejected status children in relation to social prominence may help to facilitate the develop- This article was published Online First September 26, 2011. Thomas W. Farmer, Cristin M. Hall, and Debra Brooks, Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology and Special Education, The Pennsylvania State University; Man-Chi Leung, Center for Developmental Science, Uni- versity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; David B. Estell, School of Education, University of Indiana. Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to Thomas W. Farmer, 227 CEDAR Building, Uni- versity Park, PA 16802. E-mail: twf2@psu.edu ment of more effective social interventions. Ac- cordingly, the goal of the present study was to examine the social characteristics and peer af- filiations of distinct subtypes of rejected status children as a function of their level of social prominence, Sociometric Status and Social Prominence Investigations of sociometric status were at the forefront of research on children's social development from the early 1970s through the late 1990s, and this construct continues to be a key variable of interest in current studies of peer relations (Bierman, 2004; Rubin et al,, 1998), Five distinct classifications of peer status (i,e,, popular, average, controversial, neglected, re- jected) have been identified by sociometric sta- tus researchers (see Coie, Dodge, & Coppotelli, 1982), Much of the early sociometric status research focused on identifying the social and behavioral correlates of tbese five categories (Asher & Coie, 1990), Students who are iden- tified as popular tend to have strong prosocial skills and get along well with peers, while youth who are identified as sociometrically rejected have poor social skills, engage in disruptive and 260