In a study published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, scientists found childhood 'top dogs' enjoyed better health as adults.
The authors of the study collaborated results taken from studying 14,000 children born in Sweden in 1953, whose health was tracked over 50 years.
The degree of 'popularity, power and status' enjoyed by each child was recorded at ages 12 to 13, by asking them who they most preferred to work with at school, with the results categorised into five bands.
These results were then assessed alongside hospital records from 1973 to 2003.
The researchers said: 'Analysis showed that children the furthest down the pecking order at school had the highest overall risk of serious ill health as an adult. The pattern was evident for both men and women, although there were differences in the types of ill health they developed.
'Children who were the least popular and powerful at school were more than four times as likely to require hospital treatment for hormonal (including diabetes), nutritional, and metabolic diseases as their most popular and powerful classmates.
'And they were more than twice as likely to develop mental ill health and behavioural problems, including suicide attempts and self harm.'
The researchers added that children who were not powerful or popular were also 'significantly more likely' to have drug and alcohol dependency.
The authors concluded that 'peer status in childhood is linked to adult health through behavioural and psychological factors that influence the development of disorders and diseases in which these factors feature'.
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