Chapter Outline

Introduction

Adolescents spend more time talking to peers each day than on any other activity.
Moods are highest when they are with friends.
America has increasingly segregated children according to peer groups (groups of people who are roughly the same age).

The Origins of Adolescent Peer Groups in Contemporary Society

Adolescents in the U.S. today are more isolated from adults and children outside their age group than ever before.
Adolescents in India spend about 40% of their waking hours with family members, while American teens spend less than 15%.

The educational origins of adolescent peer groups

Age grading - the practice of grouping students in school by age, began in the mid-1800s.
Until the 1930s, the typical adolescent spent more time with adults and children of different ages in school.
Less than 25% of American adolescents leave school before graduating from high school at age 17 or 18.

Work, family life, and adolescent peer groups

Child labor laws restricted adolescents' participation in the world of work, further isolating them from adults.
Rise in maternal employment also isolated teens from adults.
Between 2 and 6 million adolescents come home from school before their parents come home from work.

Changes in the population

Rapid growth in teen population between 1955 and 1975, and this trend repeated itself in the 1990s - the baby boom generation.
The size of the adolescent population will warrant changes in allocation of funds for services, education, and health care.
The size of the baby boom cohort will inform scientists regarding the unique nature and characteristics of such a large generation moving through life stages.

The Adolescent Peer Group: A Problem or a Necessity?

Some have argued that age segregation has created a youth culture that is separate from the adult culture in its values and attitudes.
Others argue that industrialization and modernization have created a society in which the peer group is a necessary source of socialization, given the inability of adults to spend as much time with youth as they once did.

Is there a separate youth culture?

James Coleman, in his book The Adolescent Society (1961), argued that adolescents' motivation for academic success was significantly lower than the aspirations held for them by their parents.
In part, the peer group frowns upon academic success.
This difference is likely still true today.
The separation of adolescents from adults may have created a scenario in which teens are not in touch with or in agreement with what their parents want for them.
Problems such as youth unemployment, teen suicide, juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and teen pregnancies may be attributed to the lack of connection between adults and teens.
Recent research might indicate that adolescents' attitudes are becoming more similar to their parents' than they were in the 60s and 70s.
Other factors may be more responsible for the increase in problems experienced by adolescents; stress, family relocation, divorce rates, media pressure, health of the economy, etc.
Studies of peer pressure indicate that most teens pressure each other NOT to use drugs or engage in sexual activity.
They DO report pressure to drink alcohol.
Few report pressure to do well in school.

The need for peer groups in modern society

When norms for adult behavior vary from person to person, they are called particularistic norms.
Modern societies such as ours have universalistic norms - everyone is expected to conform to the same set of rules.
Hence, it is more appropriate that adolescents learn from a larger sphere of individuals, outside of the family.
In order to properly train youth to know the rules, it is much more efficient and effective to segregate them according to age groups (and teach each age group what they need to know when they need to know it).
In postfigurative cultures, very little changes over time in what an adult needs to know; hence, adults can teach children all they need.
But, in cofigurative cultures, society changes enough from generation to generation that children/adolescents need to teach each other some things that adults cannot teach them.
In prefigurative cultures children need to teach adults many things, as society changes even more rapidly.

The Nature of Adolescent Peer Groups

Changes in peer groups during adolescence

There is an increase during adolescence in time spent with peers versus other individuals.
Males spend increasing amounts of time alone, and females spend increasing amounts of time with female peers.
This trend is more true of European-Americans than other ethnic groups.
There is also an increase in the nomination of peers as significant others.
There is also an increase in functioning without adult supervision.
During adolescence, much more peer contact is with opposite-sex friends.
Reverses the childhood sex cleavage, in which children spent much of their peer interaction with individuals of the same sex.
Adolescence is the time when large peer groups, or crowds, form.

Cliques and crowds

Cliques are small groups of 2-12 peers, usually same sex and age.
Cliques can be defined by common activities or simply by friendships.
Cliques promote the development of close friendships, facilitating intimacy.
Scientists distinguish between clique members, liaisons (less intimate contact) and isolates (few intimate friendships).
One study showed fewer than half of the students in a school were actually in a clique.
Girls more likely than boys to be in a clique; boys more likely to be isolates.
Position in social network was fairly stable over time.
Crowds are different than cliques; they are larger groups defined by reputation and stereotypes.
The functions of crowds are to locate individuals within the social structure of the school, to channel teens into associations with specific teens, and to serve as contexts that reward certain lifestyles and disparage others.
Adolescents tend to inflate the positive qualities of their own crowd and exaggerate the negative qualities of other crowds.
Close friends don't necessarily belong to the same crowd.
Crowd membership contributes more to an adolescent's sense of identity and self-concept (for good and ill) than to his or her social development.

Changes in clique and crowd structure over time

A research technique called participant observation has been used to study the structure of adolescent peer groups; the researcher (investigator) actually joins in the activities of the teens to gain first-hand knowledge of events and individuals.
During early adolescence, clique and crowd activities revolve around same-sex activities.
Later, opposite-sex groups interact, but there is little one-on-one opposite sex interaction.
Later, as clique "leaders" become interested in the opposite sex, they begin to spend more time with someone of the opposite sex.
During middle adolescence, mixed-sex cliques become more prevalent.
During late adolescence, cliques begin to disintegrate, and are replaced by the importance of couples.
The importance of the couple as the focus of activity persists into adulthood.
The above progression from same-sex cliques to mixed-sex couples follows and facilitates the development of intimacy.
In late adolescence, the crowd structure becomes less rigid, and individuals come to be less defined by crowd membership.
In 9th grade, there is a very rigid crowd structure.
By 12th grade, the structure has loosened up.
Peer pressure is highest in 9th grade.
During early adolescence, identification with a crowd provides self-definition at a time when the adolescent is not fully capable of creating his or her own self-definition.

Adolescents and Their Crowds

The social map of adolescence

Crowds differ with regard to how involved they are in the "adult" culture, and how involved they are in the peer culture.

Crowds as reference groups

Crowds serve as a reference group; they provide individuals with an identity in the eyes of peers.
Leads to judgments of each other (some ways negative).
Also serves to influence the attitudes and behavior of crowd members.
Self-esteem is higher in individuals who are members of crowds that have more status in the school.
In schools with mixed ethnic groups, crowds tend to form based first on ethnicity, and then on other attributes such as participation in athletics, use of drugs, and having a focus on academics.
Further, the meaning of belonging to certain crowds may differ between different ethnic groups; belonging to the "brainiac" crowd in inner-city schools elicits strong criticism from other crowd members in the school.

The scientific study of adolescence: How "nerds" become "normals"

What happens to the individuals labeled as "nerds" as they move through adolescence?
David Kinney conducted an ethnographic study of such youth in a small Midwestern city.
An ethnographic study is an in-depth, qualitative study conducted as the researcher spends considerable time immersed in the culture being studied.
Many of the junior high "nerds" Kinney studied found the ability and opportunity to become accepted by others in high school.
During high school, the peer social structure is not as rigid as it is in junior high.
The "nerds'" higher level of physical and cognitive maturity in high school facilitated their greater acceptance by others.

Adolescents and Their Cliques

Similarity among clique members

Cliques tend to be composed of individuals who are the same age, race, social class, and sex.
Age segregation in classes facilitates clique formation based on age.
Sex segregation is largely due to the different interests of males and females, but also due to sensitivity about sex roles; females are interested in developing female characteristics, while males are interested in developing male characteristics, and this can best be accomplished by associating with peers of one's own gender.
Adolescents also segregate themselves into cliques based on family income and educational background, the two variables that comprise what is called social class.
Race becomes a strong predictor of clique composition during adolescence.
One influence may be the tendency for different ethnic groups to achieve at different levels academically.
During adolescence, individuals also develop attitudes about individuals in other ethnic groups that preclude the formation of close friendships.
Preventing the formation of ethnic stereotypes is more successful if school integration is initiated during childhood rather than adolescence.

The sexes: Why are there sex differences in interracial contact?

In general, adolescents tend to have far less contact with peers of other races than of their own race.
This "race cleavage" tends to be stronger for females than males.
Some argue that the higher concern for opposite-sex attention among girls facilitates a more competitive attitude of girls toward each other.
White females are perhaps also more connected to the network of information about teachers and classes than African-American girls.
Girls are also more likely to spend time in small groups than boys, which facilitates more isolation from other groups.

Common interests among friends

Adolescents and their friends tend to have similar attitudes toward school (time spent studying, importance of grades), toward the teen culture (music, dress, activities, drug use), and involvement in antisocial activities (criminal activity, aggressiveness).
Gangs are deviant peer groups that can be identified by name and symbols (colors, hand signs).
Antisocial peer group formation begins at home, with coercive and hostile parent-child relationships leading to an antisocial disposition in the child, which leads to school failure and peer rejection by classmates; these rejected children and teens seek out others who have suffered similar experiences and reward each other with strong bonds of friendship that pit the gang members against everyone else.
The finding that antisocial adolescents become more antisocial when they spend time with antisocial peers has caused some to question the wisdom of group-based interventions.
Some of these groups have produced iatrogenic effects (undesirable outcomes from well-intentioned treatments).

Similarity between friends: Selection or socialization

Adolescents become friends both because of prior similarities and because they become like each other the more they interact (selection and socialization).
For example, alcohol users "find each other" and influence each other to drink.
Likewise, depressed teens tend to associate with others who have depressive tendencies, and their depression is collectively worsened.
Conversely, aggressive teens with few or no aggressive friends become less aggressive over time.
Small groups are only moderately stable over the school year.
They become more stable during later years of high school.

Popularity and Rejection in Adolescent Peer Groups

Social skill is the most important determinant of popularity among one's peers.
Popular teens act appropriately, in the eyes of their peers, are good at discerning the needs of others, and are confident without being "stuck up."
They are also friendly, cheerful, good-natured, humorous, and smart.
Being popular does not necessarily equate with having many friends, but this is often the case.
Popular teens are more likely to have intimate friendships, be active in social activities, and receive more social recognition.
Social scientists distinguish between three other types of "popularity status" teens: aggressive, withdrawn, and aggressive-withdrawn.
Aggressive teens are more likely to fight, be antisocial, and bully others.
Withdrawn teens are shy and timid, likely to be victims of bullying.
Aggressive-withdrawn teens have difficulty controlling their hostility, but are nervous about initiating social contact with others.
Nicki Crick has studied the aggressive tendencies of girls; they are more likely to use relational aggression - intended to harm others through deliberate manipulation of their social standing and social relationships.
Girls are more likely to exclude others from social activities, harming their reputation with others, and withdrawing attention and friendship.
Peer rejection is predictive of later depression, behavior and academic difficulties.
Aggressive teens tend to end up associating with other aggressive teens.
Withdrawn teens tend to isolate themselves and experience low self-esteem, depression, and stunted social competence.
Aggressive-withdrawn teens are at the greatest risk for psychological and behavioral problems.
Aggressive children tend to have a hostile attributional bias - they tend to perceive that others have negative attitudes and intentions toward them - and they respond to perceived "slights" with aggression.
Withdrawn children are excessively anxious and uncertain, often hovering around groups of children, not knowing how to join in, making others uncomfortable and making themselves targets for bullying.
Social skills training programs for these youths have been shown to be effective.

The Peer Group and Psychosocial Development

Peer interaction plays a crucial role in psychosocial development.
Having poor peer relations predicts low academic achievement, delinquent behavior, and emotional and health problems.
Peers provide feedback about one's development that cannot be gained from feedback from adults.
Peer relations also facilitate the development of autonomy, intimacy, achievement, and sexuality.

2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
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