4/13/2026
Do Best Friends or Popular Peers Shape Teen Behavior?
Study looks at academic performance, emotional well-being, problem behavior, social media use and weight concerns.
As children move into adolescence, one thing is clear: friends matter. But who matters most – best friends or the popular classmates? In a first-of-its-kind study, FAU researchers and collaborators followed 543 Lithuanian middle school students over the course of one semester. They compared the influence of best friends to that of popularity-driven classroom norms across different domains, including academic performance, emotional well-being, problem behavior, social media use and weight concerns.
Findings, published in the journal Development and Psychopathology, reveal a striking pattern. Best friends have the strongest impact on private, emotionally meaningful behaviors, including emotional struggles, problem behaviors and academic challenges among older adolescents. Popular peers, by contrast, primarily shape public, status-driven behaviors such as social media use and concerns about weight. The research shows that peer influence is not one-size-fits-all. Close friendships guide internal struggles and adjustment, while popularity and status guide public image and impression management. By disentangling the distinct roles of best friends and popular peers, this study illustrates how adolescents behave in a socially discerning manner that is often overlooked by adults.
“This is the first study to put best friends and popular peers in the same model and ask, ‘Who matters more, and for what?,’” said Brett Laursen, Ph.D., a professor of psychology in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.