Joe Marchiani
Professor McCleery
4/29/11
Chapter 15
A young child’s peers and friends play a huge role in the development of the person that the child will grow up to be. Social interaction at a young age shapes the child’s social life for the future. Peers also play a huge role in influencing the decisions of adolescents, along with the further building of social skills. A peer group could be a neighborhood crowd, a group of classmates, a reference group, a sports team, a church group, or just a group of friends.
One major factor of peers in child development is the formation of cliques and social groups at a young age. As seen in the study explained on page 450, ten to thirteen year old girls have already experienced rejection, but still have found social groups with other girls like them.
One girl referred to her group as “leftovers” because they weren’t as popular as some other groups of girls. She said that she goes to this “club” for support when she is sad or depressed.
Interactions with peers also allow children to see what the world is like outside his or her family household. School is one of the best places to do this because the child is surrounded with many kids around the same age. Peer groups also allow the child to receive feedback on what they do, along with comparisons to the work or activities of his or her peers.
There are some positive results of peer interaction at a young age, as this interaction is vital in building social skills for the future. Jean Piaget and Harry Stack Sullivan, two influential theorists, claimed that peer activities help build skills that allow a child to observe the interests of

peers so that they know how to fit in more smoothly. Sullivan also said that getting close with friends at a young age also helps a person develop intimate relationship skills useful for future dating or marriage. Piaget states that interactions with peers through “give-and-take” peer relations allow children to better understand the concepts of moral reasoning, fairness, and justice. Another study explained on page 451 says that competence with peer relationships was linked to success in both work and romantic relationships. Popularity and a low level of aggression also contributed to the success at work.
There are also negative effects of peer groups that have a detrimental effect on children in the future. Being rejected, left out, or neglected is said to lead to mental health and criminal problems later in life. Some peer groups found in adolescence also stress rebellion from parents and authority. This is linked to drug use, delinquency and depression. These results are usually the effect of a child associating with antisocial or delinquent peer groups, as seen by the studies explained at the bottom of 451.
In comparison with the children and adolescents of the U.S., peer relations in other countries are very different. In some parts of India and the Middle East, peer relations are very restricted, especially for girls. Schools are also surely segregated by gender. Japanese kids usually want freedom from their parents later than American children, and also have less conflict with their parents that Americans. Japanese adolescents also spend less time outside of the home, and feel less pressure from peers to disobey their parents than American adolescents. The Murian culture in eastern India calls for children to live in dormitories from age six until they are married, where they are supposed to grow spiritually, and do work for their parents until their parents arrange a marriage for them. Some peer groups even take the place of parents, such as in

the slums of South America, where some young groups of street dwelling children try to survive in an urban setting.
Peer relations play a role from infancy, all the way through adolescence. Peer interaction in infancy is also said to have an effect on socioemotional development. This is increasing in importance, as more and more children are being put into day care than in previous years.
Positive infant peer relations lead to popularity and access to play groups in early childhood. It is said that around 10% of a child’s day is spent with peers at age two.
By age three, children usually would rather play with kids of the same gender. This increases throughout early childhood, along with the frequency of peer interaction. Rough play becomes a factor in the early childhood stage because it leads to aggressiveness. It is also said that children in preschool spend a lot of time talking and arguing about the rules of play. Around this time it is said that 20% of a child’s day is spent with friends.
Starting around age seven, reciprocity and mutual play becomes very important. Children are also spending even more time with their peers, as much as 40% of the day. Peer groups also increase in size around this age, and are subject to less parental supervision. Gender also plays a large role during these years before puberty, especially with the size of the groups. Around age five, it is seen that boys are more likely to play in large groups, while girls are more likely to play in groups of two or three. Gender also affects the type of play, as boys are more likely to play rough games and games that display their ego, allow them to take risks, and try to prove their dominance. Girls are said to be more likely to collaborate instead of compete.
Parents largely influence peer relations in various ways. Parents often teach children how to deal with conflict or how to be less shy before they are in the actual situation. Parents also control the opportunity for peer interaction, especially at a young age. Parents also decide a

child’s lifestyle, school, church and neighborhood, along with the friends of the parent. These are all sources of possible friends for the child. The relationship between child and parent also sets up the way children interact with other kids. The marital relationship between parents also affects peer interaction. It is said that being attached to the mother and a more emotionally intimate marital relationship between parents leads to a child’s positive reactions with a close friend. However, parent-child relationships are much different than peer relationships, as most children see their parents as more of an authority, while peers are treated more like equals.
Social cognitions and emotions also play a large role in peer relations. Social cognition is what children think when they receive a certain social response, such as being picked last for a team, or being denied when asking to borrow a toy or game. One way to see how this cognition contributes to peer interaction is through perspective talking, where a child is made to understand someone else’s point of view. Another is through Social Information-Processing skills, which is how children process information about peer relationships. For example an accident could be interpreted as hostility, leading to retaliation. Another way peer relations are affected is through emotional regulation. Children who are able to regulate and control their emotions, are less likely to lash out. It is said that children who are popular and accepted have an easier time with this than those who are often rejected.
The chapter also lists five main peer statuses that categorize children socially. They are popular, average, neglected, rejected, and controversial. The first four get increasingly negative as you go down the list from popular to rejected. The last status, controversial, means that the child is likely to have a best friend, but also is likely to be disliked by others. Children on the popular side of this spectrum gain many social skills from being popular that are useful later in life. Children on the rejected or neglected side are detrimentally affected by social interactions,

causing possible problems in the future. Paired with being aggressive, rejection can be a major problem later in life. It is said that rejected, aggressive children are more likely to disrupt class to get attention, easily aroused to anger, and have fewer social skills when it comes to making friends and maintaining positive relationships. There are currently social-skills training programs that help these rejected and neglected kids learn what they are missing out on from natural skill development from the interactions that they are not receiving. These programs help them deal with managing emotions, reacting to peer behavior, and how to compromise and negotiate.
Bullying is also a major social problem evident in the lives of young children and adolescents, as well as in teens and even some adult situations as well. In a study done, almost one in three children said that they experienced some type of bullying. Boys and younger middle school students are said to be the most likely victims of bullying, and that these victims are more likely to be lonely and have difficulty making friends. Bullies were found to have low grades and to be more likely to smoke and drink alcohol. Bullies are said to do what they do because their victims are either non-threatening and don’t retaliate, aggressive and irritating.
Play also serves an important role in peer relations. Play is necessary for children, as it serves as a stress reliever, cognitive builder, and allows children to apply some skills learned in school, such as basic math. Play also teaches children about gender roles, as it was said before that boys are more competitive and that girls are more collaborative. Mildred Parten classified play into six types: unoccupied, solitary, onlooker, parallel, associative, and cooperative. As you read down the list, each type of play requires more social interaction. Unoccupied, solitary, onlooker, and parallel play feature children playing by themselves, while associative, and cooperative play consists of social interaction with a group. There are also many ways to play

such as: sensorimotor and practice play, pretense/symbolic play, social play, constructive play, and games.
Friendship also plays a huge role in peer relations for obvious reasons. The chapter explains six functions of friendship. These functions are: companionship, stimulation, physical support, ego support, social comparison, and intimacy and affection. The way that these functions are fulfilled is based on the relationship between the friends, the personality characteristics of each individual, and the social groups that they belong to. For example, a delinquent child is obviously likely to have delinquent friends, where a more physically active child is more likely to have friends that are into sports or like to play physically. Also, the closer a child gets to a friend, the more the child discloses about himself or herself. A chart on page 464 shows that as a child gets older he or she is more likely to tell more about himself or herself to his best friend than to his parent. This shows how intimacy plays a large role in friendship.
Friends also are a good source of support, helping in many situations such as school work, dealing with a conflict or bully, or making more new friends. Similarity is also an important aspect of friendship. Someone who shares the same interests or likes with another person is more likely to befriend that person.
Gender also plays a role in friendships, where it is said that girls become more intimate with friends through talking about themselves or each other, while boys are more likely to partake in activities with each other such as sports or games. Boys often don’t disclose too much about themselves because it isn’t seen as masculine. Boys also are more likely to try and take control in a conflict between friends, as opposed to girls who are more likely to patiently wait conflict out.

Age affects friendships as well. Although kids usually make friends with kids their own age, friendships with older or younger children aren’t too uncommon. It is said that children who make older friends could be encouraged to engage in delinquent or sexual behavior at a young age. This is because younger children look up to and want to be like their older friends.
Peer pressure is also a major factor in peer development. The pressure to conform is evident at an early age, but it increases greatly during ages fourteen to eighteen. Peer pressure often gets teens to do things that they know are wrong or shouldn’t be done. Things like shoplifting and other theft are often the result of peer pressure because they are actions that most teens think twice about and have to be pressured into doing.
Peer pressure is often exercised by cliques or crowds. A clique is a group ranging from two to twelve people and average at about five or six members. A crowd is a larger group, sometimes labels with names like “jocks” or “druggies.” Membership in either of these groups shape the way a child interacts with his or her peers, and also determines who they interact with.