Adolescent development HC 7
Peers: friendships and status – Claire Garandeau
Do parents really matter that much?
Freud: blame parents of psychopathology (they don’t handle the impulses)
Behaviorists: they are assumed (learned through modeling of punishment/rewarding)
Flaw in research… (they where not taking genetics into account)
Difference between peers and friends
Peers = large network of same-age mates
Friends = subcategory in peers, people you know, like and with whom you develop a
valued, mutual relationship
Peer pressure or “friends’ pressure” ?
Peers:
Adolescents influenced by those they want to be friends with (unreciprocated friends)
may be more influential
Being ridiculed is a form of peer pressure (if people do this, they are not really your
friend)
Some peers are simply more influential
Strive for autonomy leads to a shift in importance in family to friends. We see this in time
spend with them and the quality of these relationships:
Family versus friends in adolescence
Time spent with friends/peers increases
o Especially other-sex friends
Time spent with family decreases
1. Family versus friends in adolescence: quality of relationshipt
Main source of support and happiness
o Shift from parents to friends (they may understand you better and the source
of conflicts with parents are different than with friends)
Discussion preference
o Friends for romantic/sex issues
o Parents for academic career/education issues
2. Family versus friends…really?
Parents may influence their child’s friendships:
o Secure attachment: internal working models affect quantity and quality of
friendships.
o Cultural differences:
Shift less obvious in non-Western, collectivistic cultures (no
universality!)
, Adolescent development HC 7
- Expressing disapproval
- Type of school
- Neighborhood
- Extra-curricular activities
- Adolescent personality and
behaviors
Changes in friendship quality
Late adolescents describe 4 main types of friendships:
o Friendly (shared activities)
o Intimate (affection, sharing feelings)
o Integrated (friendly + intimate)
o Uninvolved (neither)
Increase in the importance of intimacy
o Higher levels of self-disclosure
o Emphasis on trust, loyalty
More likely in late than middle or early adolecents (what you look for in friends changes)
Why does intimacy become more important?
Perspective-taking skills empathy
Complex thinking
What guides adolescents choice of friends?
We tend to be friends with people who are similar (homophily):
o Media & leisure preferences
o School performance
o Academic orientation
o Risk behaviors
o Ethnicity
Increase in ethnic friendship segregation in adolescence: why?
o Ethnic distributions are not the same evertywhere
o Parents may discourage cross-ethnic friendships
o Similarity in discrimination
o Ethnicity is part of your identity
o Political engagement, awareness of conflicts between ethnic groups
(segregation becomes stronger)
Selection or influence?
Do they become more similar over time? (because they hang out together?)
o Deviant peer affiliation predicts delinquent behavior better than family, school,
and community characteristics.
o Implication for intervention?
If you want someone to become less delinquent, you have to put them
in an environment with non-delinquent peers.
Evidence for both selection and influence effect
Peers: friendships and status – Claire Garandeau
Do parents really matter that much?
Freud: blame parents of psychopathology (they don’t handle the impulses)
Behaviorists: they are assumed (learned through modeling of punishment/rewarding)
Flaw in research… (they where not taking genetics into account)
Difference between peers and friends
Peers = large network of same-age mates
Friends = subcategory in peers, people you know, like and with whom you develop a
valued, mutual relationship
Peer pressure or “friends’ pressure” ?
Peers:
Adolescents influenced by those they want to be friends with (unreciprocated friends)
may be more influential
Being ridiculed is a form of peer pressure (if people do this, they are not really your
friend)
Some peers are simply more influential
Strive for autonomy leads to a shift in importance in family to friends. We see this in time
spend with them and the quality of these relationships:
Family versus friends in adolescence
Time spent with friends/peers increases
o Especially other-sex friends
Time spent with family decreases
1. Family versus friends in adolescence: quality of relationshipt
Main source of support and happiness
o Shift from parents to friends (they may understand you better and the source
of conflicts with parents are different than with friends)
Discussion preference
o Friends for romantic/sex issues
o Parents for academic career/education issues
2. Family versus friends…really?
Parents may influence their child’s friendships:
o Secure attachment: internal working models affect quantity and quality of
friendships.
o Cultural differences:
Shift less obvious in non-Western, collectivistic cultures (no
universality!)
, Adolescent development HC 7
- Expressing disapproval
- Type of school
- Neighborhood
- Extra-curricular activities
- Adolescent personality and
behaviors
Changes in friendship quality
Late adolescents describe 4 main types of friendships:
o Friendly (shared activities)
o Intimate (affection, sharing feelings)
o Integrated (friendly + intimate)
o Uninvolved (neither)
Increase in the importance of intimacy
o Higher levels of self-disclosure
o Emphasis on trust, loyalty
More likely in late than middle or early adolecents (what you look for in friends changes)
Why does intimacy become more important?
Perspective-taking skills empathy
Complex thinking
What guides adolescents choice of friends?
We tend to be friends with people who are similar (homophily):
o Media & leisure preferences
o School performance
o Academic orientation
o Risk behaviors
o Ethnicity
Increase in ethnic friendship segregation in adolescence: why?
o Ethnic distributions are not the same evertywhere
o Parents may discourage cross-ethnic friendships
o Similarity in discrimination
o Ethnicity is part of your identity
o Political engagement, awareness of conflicts between ethnic groups
(segregation becomes stronger)
Selection or influence?
Do they become more similar over time? (because they hang out together?)
o Deviant peer affiliation predicts delinquent behavior better than family, school,
and community characteristics.
o Implication for intervention?
If you want someone to become less delinquent, you have to put them
in an environment with non-delinquent peers.
Evidence for both selection and influence effect
