Peers: We began by discussing some of the reasons that peer groups have become so important in adolescent life.  Those reasons include:

•  the role that industrialization and (subsequent child labor laws) played, with the resulting segregation of family life from the work place, and, recently, of the increase of women in the workforce, 

• the age segregation that resulted from mandatory schooling and the larger school structures that became possible due to the growth of the cities and suburbs, 

• and the  increased access that adolescents had to their peers with the density of the population increasing and access to the family car,

• Another socio-historical aspect of the growth of our youth-oriented culture came about as the result of the 'baby boom' following World War II.  Following the war, the society focused on rebuilding families and the huge number of babies became teens in the fifties, a time of much greater prosperity. Radio and television had a massive influence on marketing to this new group of 'customers' and teens had more time and money for their own interests and activities.

We also discussed the changes in the kind of socialization and training needed to prepare adolescents for adult life and work skills and roles. 

1. In the 'good old days'- for hundreds of years and many generations -  society changed very slowly and a child could expect to grow up to need basically the same skills and knowledge that his/her parents needed to make a living. Under these conditions, the adults were the teachers who passed along their wisdom and expertise to the young. This is referred to as the post-figurative model of socialization of the young.  
2. When society is changing more rapidly, as it has in the past 100 years, socialization becomes more co-figurative, where much of the basic knowledge of how the world works is still passed on by the adults, but they also learn about the new technology, new skills, and changes in the social structure form their children. Youth, being less set in their ways and more open to new ways of thinking, were more likely to easily acquire the needed skills and information. (This was seen most markedly in immigrant families, in which the children became the interpreters, not only of the new language, but of the new ways of thinking and behaving, for their parents.)  
3. Now, with the pace of change so rapid that each decade brings new technological breakthroughs and vast quantities of information,  new social challenges that require new kinds of skills and knowledge, we are becoming a pre-figurative society, in which the young, in many situations, are the teachers for the adults. (Three and four-year olds often know more about how the family computer works than their parents do!) 

1. We discussed the concept of a 'youth culture'. Certainly our society has commercially responded to the fact that young people have more discretionary money and time to spend; every 'trend' created by adolescents is produced and sold back not only to them, but marketed to all age groups. Little children wear clothing styles originated by adolescent fads and adults of all ages can be seen adopting aspects of the so-called 'youth culture'. However, it is a mistake to assume that there is only one dominant 'youth culture': there are many diverse ones that express different origins, attitudes, and aspirations.

2. The degree to which adolescents conform to their peer's expectations, image and behavior varies over the course of adolescence. Initially, belonging to the peer group is a secure way of moving away from family, and peer groups of young adolescents promote conformity but as adolescents become more comfortable and confident with who they are as individuals, they become less vulnerable to peer pressure (and less likely to exclude those who do not conform).

3. Because today's youth must be prepared for a world that is rapidly changing, preparation for the adult world must be more universal and less focused on particular skill sets or specific roles. Therefore adolescents throughout the society are learning much the same things at the same time. This, coupled with the shared images of the mass media, means that adolescents have far more in common today than they did a century ago. In addition, access to information about the world far beyond the local communities is easily accessed through the computer.

4. These facts, coupled with the amount of time that adolescents spend unsupervised by adults and either alone or with their peers, contribute to the importance of the role of peers in the socialization  process. Once children no longer need moment-to-moment supervision and can start to congregate without an adult-imposed structure,  peer relationships provide an important setting for psychosocial development and socialization. In early to mid- adolescence, much of this socialization process takes place within 'cliques', small groups of friends that are part of a larger 'crowd' that shares similar interests, activities and values.  There is the athletic 'crowd', the 'nerds' or 'techies', etc; within these crowds, friendships form and groups of friends (cliques) coalesce. Many times friendships from childhood are extended to membership in cliques within groups and last beyond these groups into adult friendships, but often, when neighborhoods or family connections have been the basis for friendships in childhood, these are replaced with friends who share more than a neighborhood origin.

5. We discussed the changing makeup of peer relationships as a child moves into and through adolescence.

crowds, cliques and friendships over the course of adolescence.  

• Whereas children spend a lot of time with peers in adult-organized activities, adolescents spend increasing amounts of time with peers without adult supervision
• Children's peer groups are highly sex-segregated, and, at first, adolescent groups are also same sex groups, but as they grow older, the groups become mixed sex groups and then evolve into smaller groups of couples.
• During adolescence, large vaguely defined crowds, which serve as reference groups, are formed. Certain stereotypes of  style, behavior, etc. identify each 'crowd' as a particular social context, as separate from other 'crowds'. Early in adolescence, conformity to the norms of a particular crowd is more important than later in adolescence, when crowds become less important in an adolescent's self-image and the crowds themselves become more permeable.
• Cliques are smaller subgroups of a crowd in which the individuals are friends who share activities and spend more time together.

6. Popularity is an interesting aspect of peer culture: who is 'in', who is 'out' and why has been studied by social scientists extensively and they have found that 'popular' adolescents are those who are friendly, self-confident and have good social, while unpopular adolescents tend to be aggressive, hostile or withdrawn. The class discussed the negative aspects of being popular also: it can 'go to your head', you can learn to manipulate people, and the popular or 'in group' can be very cruel and harsh in rejecting those that are different. On the other hand, being 'different' in a way that leaves you out of a 'popular' group can give you strengths, in which you have learned to deal with the situation positively. However, statistically, unpopular youths tend to be more at risk for psychosocial problems.