Importance Of Peer Relation In Adolescence

Adolescence is popularly known to be a very tumultuous stage in a person’s life. In the adolescent stage (also coined the identity vs. role confusion stage by theorist Erik Erikson) bodies are changing rapidly, emotions are unfamiliar and unexplainable, and refraining from succumbing to peer pressure is more challenging than ever.

Most adolescents face the same obstacles in life and experience similar difficulties. Friends in childhood are primarily found at “school” (Murray 2009). This is because they

They are going through transitions in intellectual development and the process and transition of primary to secondary education.’ There are various intellectual skills that an adolescent will learn within this life stage. When in the adolescent life stage, the emotional development norms for an individual is to learn their personal identity and they must leant about who they are about how to control their emotions within the change of puberty. Low self-esteem and confidence issue is often something most teenagers struggle with. With adolescence secondary learning occurs, a person’s self-worth can change within this life-stage due to the social situations that an individual had to be within, also their use of clothing, language and religion etc. The introduction of hormones can often change how teenagers see themselves. Adolescent’s independence that they go through can affect their social and emotional development.

They have a hard time finding who they are as a person. Adolescence is a period of time where kids are putting into circumstance that are hard to understand until they go through them hardship themselves. In “Saplings in the Storm” girls were analyzed to give better understanding of girl’s emotion when they are going through adolescence. Stated in the article, “In early adolescence, studies show that girls’ IQ scores drop and their resiliency and optimism and become less curious and inclined to take risks. They lose their assertive, energetic and “tomboyish” personalities and come more deferential, self- critical and depressed” (19). Girls try to fit the social stands of being a “girl” and in the end they bring themselves down mentally. Adults don’t understand the social stand because they aren’t completely the same anymore. In today’s society girls have to grow up so fast. Girls start wearing makeup at a young age, start wearing scandalize clothes, and have sexual encounters early. Having to go through all these mild stones may make it hard to be themselves and have

Next to the parents, a child’s friends can be the biggest influence in a child’s life, and the need to fit in can be very hard for a child. The idea of being cool or giving into peer pressure can cause a child’s idea of what’s right and what’s wrong to become misconstrued. Causing a child to fall into a bad crowd of delinquent peers causing them to get into trouble with the law.

The period of adolescence is crucial in the development of identity and social integration, and for many teens can be very trying. From the moment children begin attending programs such as daycare and elementary schooling, they are transferred from an environment that no longer exclusively contains their parents, to one where they are integrated with other children who are similar in age; also known as peers. In the United States, adolescents spend twice the amount of time within peer groups from a day to day basis than with their parents (Dijkstra & Veenstra 2011). The socialization that occurs within these peer groups plays a large role in influencing the behaviors of adolescents during this developmental period; whether reinforcing positive behaviors such as academic achievement or encouraging questionable behavior and delinquency. The importance of peer groups in contemporary society is accurately represented in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, adapted from self-help book The Queen Bee’s and Wannabees, depicting the life of a young adolescent who struggles to prove herself worthy of being accepted by the dominant social group. Whether it is deciding on identifying with the ‘Brains’ or choosing to imitate the ‘Cheerleaders’ in hopes of obtaining status, overall adolescent behavior is greatly influenced by their peer groups.

Musatti, T. (1986). Early peer relations: The perspectives of Piaget and Vygotsky. In E. C. Mueller & C. R. Cooper (Eds.), Process and outcome in peer relationships (pp. 25-53). Orlando, FL: Academic

More than ever in this society as children find the need to belong or fit in to the popular crowd in school for acceptance they often tend to mimic their friends behaviors. This is often a result of the individual child trying to find him or herself. The results however, are not always negative. In fact, there are some positive results that may occur as a result of copying their peers. Simply stated, “When teens surround themselves with people who make good decisions and who are involved with positive activities and choices, it makes the adolescent child want to be better” (Stock, 2010 pg.2). Positive peers influence adolescents and can drive the child toward improved confidence, and improved grades in school. Inversely, the same can be said for the adolescent child who decides that he or she wants to be like his or her friends who have a negative influence. Children who fall into this category are those that are of the bandwagon philosophy. Those negatively impacted by peers often show signs of lower grades in school, increased distance from family. In fact, “peer pressure can lead to experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and various high risks behaviors” (Fact Sheets, 2009 pg.1). The changes in the adolescent child can have lasting effects depending on which type of peer influences that child may be surrounded by. The negative impact of peer pressure can be strong; however there are also positive influences.

Argument Essay Every year, consistently, teenagers attending a new school face genuine difficulties. They usually face personal issues, social issues, and judicial issues. For instance, they may experience difficulty understanding who they are and their potential purpose in society, making and maintaining relationships, and staying out of trouble. These sorts of issues don't go away, and require teenagers to fail or “learn the hard way”, before they can identify the issues themselves.

William Damon is an educator/researcher on psychology and education. In William Damon’s work, he has proposed that children’s friendships are developed in three specific stages. In Level 1, children are about 4-7 years old. During this level children see each other as momentary playmates. During this stage children are all about having fun, with limited perspectives. Children want things their way and do not wish to hear different opinions other than their own. As the child gets older, at the age of 8-10 years old a more profound friendship is formed, this is called Level 2. During this time a child start to build trust and start to think of other rather than just themselves. Children learn the value of sharing and learn how to compromise. Lastly, Level 3 is during the approximate age of 11- 15 years old. During this time, friends are valued the most to a child. This is a more mature stage where children build trustful relationships and a high level of emotional closeness is built. Regardless of age cliques and crowds always develop among children and adults. A clique is a group of member that share common interests, often are of the same gender. The members of the group are often labeled or stereotyped. Crowds are very similar to cliques, both shape the minds of children on how they should act or how they should be. Both add pressure to adolescents under peer pressure such as drinking, smoking, skipping school, or sex in order to fit it. Cliques and crowds develop as a way

In establishing one’s identity it is important that you have a good support system. Along with having a stable family life, it is also good to have that connection with your peers. In the Adolescents stage adolescents want to borrow and “attempt on” various behaviors and attributes that they study in others because the state of frameworklessness leaves them without really defined approaches of behaving and questioning. Peers turn out to be an essential resource for such

The peer group to which a child is exposed in school classrooms has been found to exert strong impact on that child’s growth or diminution of aggressive behaviour over time. Peer effects on growth in adolescent deviant behaviour have been documented in schools, neighbourhoods and housing settings (Vigdor, 2006), community programs such as after-school programs and community centers (Lansford, 2006), and naturally-occurring groups such as gangs (Klein, 2006). Students (seemingly randomly) assigned to elementary classrooms with a relatively high ratio of aggressive peers are likely to increase their aggressive behaviours during that school year and at least several years into the future, relatively to other students (Stearns, Dodge, Nicholson, & CPPRG, 2008; Thomas, Bierman, & CPPRG, 2006; Warren, Schoppelrey, Moberg, & McDonald, 2005). Middle childhood marks a developmental stage when children begin to form close attachments to individuals other than their parents or primary caregiver (Ainsworth, 1989). As a person progresses into adolescence, the bonds to peers become strengthened. As children mature into young adults, they redirect their attachment focus from the primary caregiver to others. An evolutionary perspective has been suggested to account for this as a manner in which they become autonomous, socialize with peers, and find a mate (Caporael, 2001). Studies indicate that young people who are actively involved in risky behaviours are also more involved in

Adolescents are faced with a lot of pressure from many different people. They get put under pressure from their parents to their peers. They also get

Children become rule based and listen when spoken to. School plays a large part in this since teacher educate kids to listen, sit down quietly and work in small , in the future will be vital for real life work in adulthood.("Stages of Growth Development," 1898-1987). In this stage of life Piaget’s cognitive theory comes into play. Children in this stage in life are more concrete operational, meaning that they deal with visible, tangible things. They become more systematic. Peer relationships and best friend are crucial at this stage, this helps children have deeper relationships while heading into adolescence and can help determine if they will be able to hold a relationship as adults (Stassen Berger, 2009). Social trend, such as violence, eating disorders and even drug use are seen more readily in ages seven to twelve years old. This increasing pressure in schools to recognize the problem and develop more activities such as sports, music, and social events to help children stay active and away from drug use, this eventually helps in adolescence and young adulthood years.

In middle school, young adolescents are beginning to go through major changes in their lives. From physical to intellectual, it’s an adjustment that can seem drastic to the middle schooler. Because of these changes, sometimes they can get restless. Physically, middle schoolers are going through body changes, such as puberty. A small proportion develop growing pains, which cause extreme discomfort. Physical changes can also affect the social relations that peers have with one other and with their own self-perception. Socially, middle schoolers are trying to find who they are as an individual and who their friends are. They want to please their peers because they want to be accepted, even if that means changing who they are and what they do. By forming relationships with their peers, they build a system of trust and respect for each other. These relationships help boost their self-esteem and help cope with the physical and psychological changes when they go through puberty. Intellectually, they are just now building the skills that will aid them later on