Aggression, Academic Behaviors, and Popularity Perceptions Among Boys of Color During the Transition to Middle School Hongling Xie, Molly Dawes, and Tabitha J. Wurster Temple University Bing Shi Sun Yat-sen University The transition to middle school often presents behavioral and academic challenges to youths. Boys of color (i.e., African American and Hispanic in this study) may be espe- cially vulnerable. In this study, peer nominations of aggressive and academic behaviors as well as youths’ perceptions of how these behaviors were related to popularity in peer networks were obtained from the spring semester of fifth grade through the spring semes- ter of seventh grade, with the transition occurring as the students entered the sixth grade. The sample included 188 boys (71 Caucasian, 90 African American, and 27 Hispanic) from an urban school district in the northeastern United States. Trajectory analyses showed that African American boys scored lower in studentship and higher in rule- breaking and aggressive (both physical and social) behaviors prior to the transition, and such differences among ethnic groups were largely maintained during the transition. His- panic boys displayed decreases in their studentship during the transition. African Ameri- can boys’ perception of how studentship affects popularity was more positive than other boys prior to the transition, but it decreased during the transition. African American boys also endorsed rule breaking and physical and social aggression more positively for popularity prior to the transition, whereas Caucasian and Hispanic boys’ endorsement increased during the transition and eventually caught up with those of African American boys in seventh grade. A positive within-individual association was found between youths’ popularity perception and their behavior for studentship, rule breaking, and physical aggression, which did not differ by ethnicity. T he transition to middle school presents multiple chal- lenges for youths’ academic and social adjustment. Significant changes in school context occur. Such changes include a substantially larger school size, different classroom organizations, less opportunity to form close rela- tionships with teachers, fewer positive teacher–student relation- ships, stricter academic standards, an increased level of academic competition, and different classroom instruction and management strategies (e.g., Barber & Olsen, 2004; Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Eccles, Wigfield, Schiefele, Eisenberg, & Damon, 1998; Harter, Whitesell, & Kowalski, 1992; Seidman, Aber, & French, 2004; Simmons & Blyth, 1987). According to the stage-environment fit theory (Eccles & Roeser, 2009; Eccles et al., 1993), these changes often do not match the developmen- tal needs of early adolescents and adversely affect youths’ adjustment. The transition to middle school is associated with several areas of difficulties among early adolescents: declines in academic motivation and performance, lower self-concept and confidence, decreased classroom engagement, and increased psychological symptoms (e.g., Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Eccles et al., 1998; Robinson, Garber, & Hilsman, 1995; Rudolph, Lambert, Clark, & Kurlakowsky, 2001; Seidman, Allen, Aber, Mitchell, & Feinman, 1994; Simmons & Blyth, 1987). In addition, youths face significant changes in friendships, peer group affiliations, school social networks, and peer culture during the transition to middle school. Youths’ friendship affili- ations and peer social networks are significantly interrupted, requiring youths to renegotiate friendships, peer group mem- berships, and social status (e.g., Hardy, Bukowski, & Sippola, 2002). Such social “reshuffling” with its attendant changes in peer culture during the transition seems to cause aggression, bullying, and deviant behaviors to become more accepted by middle school students than by elementary school students (Bukowski, Sippola, & Newcomb, 2000; Seidman et al., 1994; Xie, Li, Boucher, Hutchins, & Cairns, 2006). At the same time, This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF 0339070) and the William T. Grant Foundation to Hongling Xie. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the granting agen- cies. We thank the children who participated in our study and the schools that assisted our study in various ways. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Hongling Xie, Department of Psychology, Temple University, Weiss Hall, 1701 N. 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122. Electronic mail may be sent to hongling.xie@temple.edu. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry © 2013 American Orthopsychiatric Association 2013, Vol. 83, No. 2,3, 265–277 DOI: 10.1111/ajop.12039 265