Chapter 8: Friends & Peers
Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.
Dept of Psychology
University of West Florida
Friends & Peers
• What’s the difference?
– Friends?
– Peers?
Friends & Peers
• The course of friendship& peer relations
across adolescence:
– Increase in time with peers relative to family
– Peer groups become more diverse and
differentiated
– Closer friendships are formed
– Hierarchies of social groups are established
Friends & Peers
• Families and friends:
– Children look to families for emotional support
– Adolescents look to closer friends for emotional
support
• Sources of support:
– Adolescents look to parents for conversations
about school and career
– They look to peers for other key topics (romance,
interpersonal problems)
Friends & Peers
• Patterns of change:
– Late childhood Parents
– Early adolescence Same sex friend/parents
– Middle adolescence Same sex friend> parents
– Emerging adulthood Romantic partner> parents
Friends & Peers
• Parent—Adolescent Relationships
– Secure attachment with parents related to secure
friendships
– Indirect influence of parents on adolescents’
friends and peer group:
• Location of residence
• School chosen for attendance
– Authoritative parenting style positively related to
higher quality peer relationships
Friends & Peers
• Friendships sustain adolescents’ emotional
lives
– Seek out friends who share emotional orientation
– Moods tend to be more positive with friends
– Friends are more open to sharing emotional states
– Moods tend to be more positive over weekends
(duh?)
• What would trigger negative emotional state
with friends?
Friends & Peers
• Traditional culture, family, & friends
– Narrow socialization—less access to peers
– Gender-based differences:
• Females tend to stay closer to mothers and women of
mother’s age
• Females have little or no access to male peers
• Males have greater access to same-sex peers
– Overall, greater reliance on family
• What function does limited access to peers
serve in traditional cultures?
Friends & Peers
• Adolescents’ friendships differ from those in
childhood by the presence of intimacy
– Shared disclosure of personal themes
– Shared vulnerabilities
– Based on perspective taking & self reflection
– Seek to see the other’s motives, ideas, and
perspectives
– Generally, females use disclosure and males use
activities to support emotional closeness
Friends & Peers
• Intimacy (cont’d)
• Narrow socialization for females and broader
socialization for males likely responsible for
gender differences
• What might disrupt an intimate friendship?
Choosing Friends
• Friendships based on:
– Shared preferences
– Shared motivations and interests
– Level of tolerance for risk behavior
• How has the internet changed the patterns of
friendships?
Friendship Influence & Peer Pressure
• Friends’ influence greater than peers’
• Influence protective & risk behaviors
• Estimates of friends’ and peers’ influence
likely exaggerated:
– Self reports tend to be overestimates
– Adolescents likely associate with others like
themselves (selective association)
Friendship Influence & Peer Pressure
• Some evidence of elevated risk behaviors in
presence of peers & friends
– Gardner & Steinberg (2005)
• Experimentally tested whether having peers present
would increase the level of risk behavior for
adolescents and adults
• Adolescents with peers present were more likely to
take risks than adults
• Risky decision making and risky behavior decreased
with age ( 13 years-37+)
– Presence of peers does impact decision-making
• How have we used this in our state?
Friendship Influence: Nurturance and Support
• Informational Support—advice, etc.
• Instrumental support—assist with tasks and
activities
• Companionship—proximal presence
• Esteem Building—celebration and
encouragement
• Positive support better psychological
adjustment
•
Friendship Influence: Nurturance and Support
• Emerging Adulthood
– Greater and more intense affiliation with friends
than earlier and later
– Tend to be clustered around shared interests
• How might social networking sites impact
friends’ influence, nurturance and support for
emerging adults?
Cliques & Crowds
• Cliques--typically same sex and age; spend available time
together; often will schedule same classes; not all (>half)
kids belong to cliques;
•
• Liaisons--individuals who, while not belonging to particular
cliques, often link cliques by having friends in several
cliques
•
• Isolates--few friends; not obviously connected to the larger
peer community;
•
• Crowd--larger peer community; multiple cliques; "If clique
activities are coaching sessions, crowd events are the game
itself."
Cliques & Crowds
• Roles of cliques and crowds change with
maturity
– Crowds typically function best for the early and
mid adolescents;
– Emerging adults who typically are beyond the
need for these groups as mirrors of self.
Cliques & Crowds
• What are friends for if not to “dis?”
– Sarcasm and ridicule
• Establish dominance hierarchy
• Boundaries for ingroup/outgroup designation
• Establish standards for clique membership
Cliques & Crowds
• Relational Aggression
– Relationship & Reputation Sabotage
– Substitute for physical aggression
– Targets tend to manifest:
• Isolation
• Depressive behaviors
• Suicidal ideation and attempts
– More prevalent among females than males
Developmental Changes in Crowds
• Increased differentiation of crowds within a
school population
• Increased influence through middle
adolescence
– Unclear whether kids change as a result of crowd
influence or whether kids select crowds that
match themselves
Developmental Changes in Crowds
• Perceptions of characteristics of crowds serve
as stereotypes (all emos are suicidal)
• Minority crowds as diverse as majority crowds
but majority individuals typically do not see
the diversity
• Crowds within traditional cultures tend to be
less age graded with fewer divisions
– Rural Kyrgyz village: Fan Club as local crowd
Popularity/Unpopularity: Peer Status Groups
• Two factors: Social Preference & Social Impact
– Social Preference
• positively related to cooperation, support,
attractiveness
• negatively related to disruption and aggression
– Social Impact
• Active and salient behaviors whether positive or
negative
– Rated high to low on each dimension
Popularity/Unpopularity: Peer Status
Groups
• Peer status groups:
– Popular—high preference & high impact
– Average/amiable—positive preference, mid-level
impact
– Rejected—low preference & high impact
– Neglected—low preference & low impact
– Controversial—rejected (disruptive, aggressive) &
popular (social leaders)
Bullying
• Characteristics of Bullies
– Aggressive
– Pattern of aggressive behavior across time
– Power imbalance between bully and victim
• Peaks in early adolescence
• Impact on victims
– Isolation
– Somatic problems
• Cyberbullying—likely relational aggression
Youth Culture
• Defined by what sets the youth apart from
children and adults
• Defined by markers
– Image
– Demeanor
– Argot
• Socializing influences
– Broader or narrower socializing forces
– Pluralistic society
– Participation varies across subcultures
• Based on the peer status group, which of the
group or groups would have belonged to in
early adolescence (13-15years)?
• How would you define your peer status now?
• What do you think has caused any change or
maintained the status quo?