The Effects Of Peer Relationships On Behavioral And Social Development Essay

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

Compare and contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1974) study with that taken by William Corsaro.

To better understand the role of peer groups on adolescent behavior, we must first examine its origin in contemporary society. Industrialization in the

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.

The lack of mental and emotional outreach from schools and the government is also a major aspect of this diseased system. It is no secret that adolescence is the most emotional time for a young person. Hormones, stress, school, family, and relationship problems are common in this age group. Still, schools have very little to none emotional outreach programs and lessons to help their pupils through this difficult time. In a NASP article about student connectedness with schools to support their emotional well-being, the article states, "School connectedness was first investigated as an important factor in student retention and dropout prevention (e.g., Wehlage et al., 1990). However, research on the construct has expanded over the past 2 decades. For example, school connectedness was the strongest protective factor for both girls and boys for decreasing drug and alcohol use, truancy, early sexual behaviors, violence, and risky behavior (e.g., drunk driving) in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which included more than 36,000 middle and high school students (Resnick et al., 1997)." Young people going through a hard or confusing time often will turn to a variety of outlets to relieve their emotions. These outlets though, can be harmful, such as drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, violence, and others. The article states, however, that an increase in school connectedness has

At three months of age, infants will spend their time watching what is going on around them. They will show their first real smile, perhaps accompanying it with some gurgling in an attempt to start interacting with others, especially parents/guardians.

For most of us in our daily lives, there are many relationships in force, often simultaneously, as this is a natural consequence of human interaction. In a school environment, relationships are formed at many different levels - between children and their peers, between children and adults in the setting, and also between the adults themselves. It is only when good (positive) relationships are enabled in a school setting between everyone involved, can benefits then be derived for everyone involved,

(12-19 years) - The early adolescent is strongly identified with the peer group. They depend upon their peers for emotional stability and support and to help mould their emerging identity. Self-esteem is greatly affected by acceptance of peers.

Social interaction plays an important role in people’s life starting from the early childhood as infants interact with their caregivers and build the emotional attachment that is the base for future relationships. By social interaction with others children learn how to communicate, play and behave in particular situation. Berk (2009) proposed the overview of the literature that concentrates upon the early attachment and its importance. Knowing the influence of social interaction on child development in the first few years, the essay is going to elaborate upon the implication of social interaction on the development of cognition. Cognitive development as Lee & Gupta (eds.) claimed is the term that refers to acquisition and development of

The research method used for this study was a survey distributed as a self-report questionnaire. Data were collected by giving the questionnaire to 3,065 male and female adolescents attending grades 7 through 12 in three midwestern states. The sample design consisted of two parts. First, schools were chosen within a participating school district, which was representative for size and location within the area. Second, two or three classrooms per grade level were chosen among the general enrollment classes. A small subset was also added from applicants who volunteered from the districts who were interviewed a few weeks before the questionnaire was administered (Akers, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radiosevich, 1979).

When children are put into educational facilities, they get a chance to connect and surround themselves with others of the same age group. Schools can also have significant influence on a person’s individuality as well as peer groups, which influence a student’s academic integrity greatly. A student will not perform well no matter what the case is, if there is negative influence from his peers and their school environment. They affect a person’s attitude, personality in a positive or negative manner.

Another form of social influence is obedience. Obedience occurs when an individual acts in response to an order by a person in authority whether that order goes against what they know to be right or not. This can be done to gain acceptance or to avoid punishment. Obedience accounts for a large amount of the medication errors that happen in hospitals each day. An example of this is a nurse following a doctor’s order even when the doctor’s orders go against her professional obligations. This was demonstrated in an experiment conducted by C. Hofling. In Hofling’s experiment 22 nurses who worked at a hospital were contacted by a staff doctor that they did not know. They were told to give twice the highest dose of a drug to his patient. If the nurses did what they were told they would be going against three different rules. First, they were not to accept doctor’s orders over the phone. Second, the dose called for by the doctor was double the maximum for that drug. Third, the medication was not on their authorized list of medications. Of the 22 nurses 21

Peer relations are one of the most important aspect of children development, as it is throughout these interactions that children and adolescent learns to function in a society. Studies show that peer rejection or lack of acceptance in childhood is linked to future low academic performance and drop out (Rubin, cited in Wainright and Patterson 2008). The relationship between parent and children seem to be the key for the success of building good social relationships. Wainright and Patterson (2008) found that children who stated to have a positive relationship with their parents, regardless of whether parents were homosexual or heterosexuals, had a

Social interaction is a complex area of study because of how multifaceted it is. Social stability starts at an early age when the child or adolescent learns how to develop trust, take initiative, and achieve a sense of identity. Erick Erickson is a great example of showing the importance of completing the psychosocial stages of development (Erikson 1994). One can glean how crucial these psychosocial stages are and the support needed around the developing child to meet these checkpoints in their life. Children are incredibly malleable; however, instilling a negative light toward social interaction can affect how they manage their later years. Being aware of the crucial beginning steps of social interaction can set the stage on how one will be throughout their adulthood.