No Guts, No Glory? Prospective Effects of Prosocial Risk-Taking on Peer Acceptance and Popularity Among Adolescents

Prosocial risk-taking behavior, defined as taking risks to help others, may play an important role in shaping adolescents’ peer status. However, prior research has largely examined prosocial or risk-taking behavior independently, and has often failed to distinguish between different forms of risk taking, resulting in inconsistent findings regarding their associations with adolescent peer status. This study employed a two-wave longitudinal design (N = 554; mean age = 13.35 years, SD = 0.35 years; 227 girls, 227 boys) with a six-month interval to investigate the relation between prosocial risk-taking behavior and peer acceptance and popularity separately, and to examine the potential moderating role of leadership in these associations. Results indicated that prosocial risk-taking behavior significantly predicted peer acceptance over and above the effects of negative risk taking and prosocial behavior, but its main effect on popularity was nonsignificant. Moderation analyses revealed that leadership significantly moderated the relation between prosocial risk-taking behavior and popularity. Specifically, prosocial risk-taking behavior predicted higher popularity only among adolescents with higher leadership status among peers, and the association was nonsignificant among those with lower leadership. In contrast, prosocial risk-taking behavior predicted peer acceptance regardless of leadership level. The current results highlight the importance of prosocial risk-taking behavior for adolescent peer relationships and suggest that fostering such behaviors may increase peer acceptance, particularly among those with higher leadership levels.