Peers play powerful roles in the lives of adolescents. Peer relations undergo important changes in adolescence, including changes in
friendships and in peer groups, as well as the beginning of romantic relationships.
A. Friendships
- Early adolescence – teenagers prefer to have smaller number of friendships that are more intense and intimate than those of
young children
- Harry Stack Sullivan – the most influential theorist to discuss the importance of adolescent friendships.
o Friends become increasingly important in meeting social needs.
o The need for intimacy intensifies during early adolescence, motivating teenagers to seek out close friends.
o If adolescents fail to develop such close friendships, they experience loneliness and a reduced sense of self-worth.
o Adolescents report disclosing intimate and personal information to their friends more often than do younger children.
o Adolescents also say that they depend more on friends than on parents to satisfy their needs for companionship,
reassurance of worth, and intimacy.
o Adolescent girls are more likely to disclose information about problems to a friend than are adolescent boys.
Although having friends can be a developmental advantage, not all friendships are alike and the quality of friendship matters.
Developmental disadvantages: coercive, conflict-ridden, poor-quality friends
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A recent study revealed than having friends who engage in delinquent behavior is associated with early onset and more
persistent delinquency.
Another recent study found that adolescents adapted their smoking and drinking behavior to that of their best friends.
A recent study of adolescent girls revealed that friends’ dieting predicted whether adolescent girls would engage in dieting or
extreme dieting.
Developmental advantages: socially skilled, supportive, and oriented toward academic achievement
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Positive friendship: associated with positive outcomes (lower rates of delinquency, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior,
bullying victimization, higher levels of academic achievement)
Although most adolescents develop friendships with individuals who are close to their own age, some adolescents become best friends
with younger or older individuals.
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Adolescents who interact with older youth do engage in more problem behaviors, such as delinquency and early sexual
behavior.
B. Peer Groups
Researchers have found that the standards of peer groups and the influence of crowds and cliques become increasingly important
during adolescence.
Peer Pressure
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Young adolescents conform more to peer standards than children do.
8th and 9th grade: conformity to peers especially to their antisocial standards is at peak.
A recent study found that boys were more likely to be influenced by peer pressure involving sexual behavior than were girls.
Mitchell Prinstein and his colleagues – conducted research that found adolescents who feel uncertain about their social
identity which may be evident in low self-esteem and high social anxiety, are most likely to conform to peers.
Adolescents are more likely to conform to peers whom they perceive to have higher status than they do.
Cliques and Crowds
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Assume more important roles during adolescence than during childhood.
Cliques – are small groups that range from 2 to about 12 individuals and average about 5 or 6 individuals
o Members are usually of the same sex and about the same age
o Can form because of engaging in similar activities, friendship, spending time with each other, share mutual interest
Crowds – are larger than cliques and less personal
o Members based on reputation, they may or may not spend much time together.
o Many crowds are defined by the activities adolescents engage in (such as ‘jocks’ who are good at sports or
‘druggies’ who take drugs.
C. Dating and Romantic Relationships
Adolescents spend considerable time either dating or thinking about dating.
Dating can be a form of recreation, a source of status, or a setting for leaning about close relationships, as well as a way of finding a
mate.
Developmental Changes in Dating and Romantic Relationships
1. Entry into romantic attractions and affiliations at about 11 to 13 years of age.
2. Exploring romantic relationships at approximately 14 to 16 years of age.
3. Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds at about 17 to 19 years of age.
Two variations on these stages in the development of romantic relationships in adolescents
a. Early bloomers – include 15 to 20 percent of 11 to 13 years-olds who say they currently are in a romantic relationship and 35
percent who indicate that they have had some prior experience in romantic relationships.
b. Late bloomers – include approximately 10 percent of 17 to 19 years-old who say that they had no experience with romantic
relationships and another 15 percent who report that they have not engaged in any romantic relationships that lasted more
than four months.
Dating in Gay and Lesbian Youth - most gay and lesbian youth have had some same-sex sexual experience, often with peers who
are “experimenting”.
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Some gay and lesbian youth continue to have same-sex orientation while others have a primarily heterosexual orientation.
Sociocultural Contexts and Dating – the sociocultural context exerts a powerful influence on adolescents’ dating patterns.
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Values, religious beliefs, and traditions often dictate the age at which dating begins, how much freedom in dating is allowed,
whether dates must be chaperoned by adults or parents, and the roles of males and females in dating.
Dating and Adjustments – researchers have linked that dating and romantic relationships with various measures of how well-adjusted
adolescents are.
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A study of tenth graders revealed: the more romantic encounters they had experienced, the more likely they were to report
high levels of social acceptance, friendship competence, and romantic competence
However, having more romantic experience also was linked with a higher level of substance use, delinquency, and sexual
behavior.
Romantic relationships in adolescence are linked with positive developmental changes
o Having a supportive romantic relationship in adolescence was linked to positive outcomes for adolescents who had a
negative relationship with their mother.
o Adolescents who engaged in a higher level of intimate disclosure at age 10 reported a higher level of companionship
in romantic relationships at 12 and 15 years of age.
Hostile conflict with a romantic partner at age 17 predicted an increase in internalizing behaviors (depression) from
17 to 27.
o Romantic partner support at age 17 predicted decreases in externalizing behaviors over time.
Dating and romantic relationships at an early age can be especially problematic.
o Romantic activity was linked to depression in early adolescent girls
o Early dating and going with someone are linked with adolescent pregnancy and problems at home and school
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Adolescent Problems
A. Juvenile Delinquent - is applied to an adolescent who breaks the law or engages in behavior that is considered illegal.
Delinquency Rates – in 2014, there were 975,000 delinquency cases in which juveniles were charged with violating laws.
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Males are more likely to engage in delinquency than are females.
Delinquency rates among minority groups and lower-socioeconomic-status youth are higher than the proportions of these
groups within the general population.
o However, such groups have less influence over the judicial decision-making process in the US and therefore may be
judged delinquent more readily than their White, middle-socioeconomic-status counterparts who have committed
similar offenses.
Early -onset antisocial behavior is associated with more negative development outcomes than late-onset antisocial behavior.
o Not only is it more likely to persist into emerging adulthood, but it is also associated with more mental health and
relationship problems.
Causes of Delinquency
a. Family environments: poverty and child maltreatment
b. Characteristics of families
i. Parental monitoring of adolescents is especially important in determining whether an adolescent becomes a
delinquent.
c. Family discord and inconsistent and inappropriate discipline
d. Authoritative parenting style
i. Family therapy is often effective in reducing delinquency.
ii. Siblings can have a strong influence on delinquency.
e. Peer relations
i. Adolescents who begin to hangout with delinquent peers are more likely to become delinquent themselves.
f. Lack of academic success
g. Cognitive factors: low self-control, low intelligence, and lack of sustained attention.
h. Callous-unemotional personality traits
B. Depression and Suicide
Depression –
Adolescents who are experiencing a high level of stress and/or a loss of some type are at increased risk for developing .
Adolescents females are far more likely to develop than are their male counterparts.
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Females tend ruminate in their depressed mood and amplify it
Females’ self-images, especially their body images are more negative than males
Females face more discrimination than males do
Puberty occurs earlier for girls than for boys
Genes are linked to adolescent depression
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Certain dopamine-related genes
Adolescents girls’ perceived stress and depression occurred only when the girls had the short version of the serotonin-related
gene 5HTTLPR
Certain family factors place adolescents at risk for developing depression.
o Depressed parent, emotionally unavailable parents, parents who have high marital conflict, and parents with financial
problems.
o Mother-daughter co-rumination (extensively discussing, rehashing, and speculating about problems) was linked to
increase in anxiety and depression in adolescent girls
o Positive parenting characteristics such as emotional and educational support were associated with lower rates of
depression in adolescents.
Poor peer relationships
o Adolescents who were isolated from their peer and whose caregivers emotionally neglected them were at significant
risk for developing depression
Friendship often provides social support.
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Depends on the type of friendship
Problems in romantic relationships can produce adolescent depression
Adolescents’ females who are obese
Therapy Treatments
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Drug therapy using serotonin reuptake inhibitors, cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal therapy
Most effective: combination of drug therapy and cognitive behavior therapy
Family therapy
Suicide behavior - is rare in childhood but escalates in adolescence and then increases further in emerging adulthood.
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Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 10 – 19 years olds today in US
Females are more likely to attempt suicide than males, but males are more likely to succeed in committing suicide.
Both earlier and later experiences are linked to suicide attempts, and these can involve family relationships.
Child maltreatment
Lower family cohesion
Recent and current stressful circumstances: getting poor grades in school or experiencing the breakup of a romantic
relationship
Genetic factors
o The closer a person’s genetic relationship to someone who has committed suicide, the more likely that person is to
also commit suicide.
Psychological profile of the Suicidal Adolescent
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Have depressive symptoms
o Although not all depressed adolescents are suicidal, depression is the most frequently cited factor associated with
adolescent suicide.
o Depressed adolescent suicide attempts had greater anhedonia severity
o A sense of hopelessness, low self-esteem, and high self-blame
o Most significant factor in a first suicide attempt during adolescence was a major depressive episode
o More recent and frequent alcohol use among young adolescents increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation and
suicide attempts.
o Peer victimization
o Cyberbullying
C. The Interrelation of Problems and Successful Prevention/Intervention Programs
Adolescents most at risk have more than one of these problems. Researchers are increasingly finding that problem behaviors in
adolescence are interrelated.
For example, heavy substance abuse is related to early sexual activity, lower grades, dropping of school, and delinquency.
Adolescents who have dropped out of school are behind in their grade level, are heavy users of drugs, regularly use cigarettes and
marijuana, and are sexually active but do not use contraception
Programs that have been successful in preventing or reducing adolescent problems found these common components
1. Intensive individualized attention
2. Community-wide multiagency collaborative approaches
3. Early identification and intervention