A child who is classified as "controversial" on a measure of social status is a child who

I believe the answer is: receives both a large number of nominations as someone that peers like, as well as a large number of nominations as someone that peers do not like.

This type of child usually have a strong appeal for someone that held one specific principle but would be despisedd by those who have opposing disciple.

For example, let's observe the delinquent students who do vandalism.

They tend to be despided by a lot of other students, but yet they still able to find to do the vandalizing in a group.