Chapter 6

Peer Influences

A. Peers serve an important function because they provide information about the world outside the family.

B. And, adolescents spend far more time (perhaps as much as twice the amount of time) with peers than family.

C. These interactions include social activities and play.

D. Positive peer interactions are associated with numerous other aspects of positive mental health (e.g., positive self-image, skills in intimacy and relationships), and negative peer interactions are associated with negative aspects later in life (e.g., delinquency, drinking, depression and loneliness).

1. This is particularly true for rejected children—those who are actively disliked by others.

E. Generally adolescents who are positively connected to their own peer group also are positively connected to the family (e.g., secure attachment to parents and peers are related).

F. Conformity—may have positive or negative consequences depending on the peer group.

1. refers to adopting the attitudes or behavior of others because of real or imagined pressure from them.

2. Peer and family influence is relatively equal around ages 8-10; around age 11-13 peer influence grows but families maintain influence in certain areas; around age 14-16 peer influence is strongest and parental conflict greatest; after age 17 independent decision-making grows.

3. Some students also will choose to be nonconformist (not guided by peer expectations or standards) or anticonformist (deliberately choosing a lifestyle different from peer and usually adult standards)

G. Friendships

1. The importance of friends

Harry Stack Sullivan argued that there is a dramatic increase in the importance of good friends and intimate relationships during adolescence.

2. The functions of friends

a. for companionship

b. for stimulation and excitement

c. for physical support and assistance

d. for ego support and encouragement

e. for social comparison

f. for intimacy, affection, trust, and self-disclosure [this is the defining feature of adolescent as compared to children’s friendships, along with the importance placed on loyalty]

3. The importance of similarity

H. The importance of “popularity”

1. Both adolescents and their parents may go to great lengths to ensure popularity (have lots of friends, positive peer attention, interact with other popular adolescents). And, popular students tend to be happy and self-confident.

a. in high school, popularity is associated with athletics for males

b. popular students appear to know and understand both the appropriate and inappropriate ways to make friends.

2. By contrast, the rejected and unpopular students are those who dominate their peers physically and verbally, have poor communication skills, lack empathy or interest in others, are uncooperative, and are poor listeners.

a. a number of these students are “bullies” and bullying appears related to both parental upbringing (the rejecting, authoritarian, or permissive parent) and later negative outcomes (later criminal convictions).

b. number of successful programs to improve social skills; many rely on a conglomerate approach (the use of multiple strategies and adult coaching)

I. Adolescents join groups and do so based on their own choices

1. These adolescent groups contain more heterogeneous members (usually “crowds”) than childhood groups.

2. Adolescent groups still tend to be highly based on similarity (usually “cliques”), particularly groups reflecting certain minorities and ethnic groups

3. Dunphy’s stages of group development

J. Dating and mate selection

1. Parents and families have, since late 19^th century, increasingly given up their control over children’s dating and mate selection.

2. Still, cultural and local factors influence when adolescents first date, how often, and under what circumstances.

3. Dating can serve a number of functions including having fun, gaining status, socialization, learning intimacy, and sexual experimentation.

4. Dating and romantic relationships are the source of strong emotions in adolescence. For adolescents, “love” usually involves a high degree of romance (physical attractiveness, sexuality, and infatuation).

5. Romantic relationships often are constructed to reflect feelings from other relationships such as with parents (attachment, observations of parental behavior), siblings, and peers (setting dating standards).