What Is Cliques

First, high schools do have cliques that unify students by groups. However, that doesn’t mean students confine in the groups they are “assigned” to, as shown in most movies representing cliques. In the movie The Breakfast Club, the five main characters used to represent the school all come from different crowds, which ultimately results in showing how they can still get along even though they don’t necessarily hang out with the same people. The characters are defined as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” These labels divide the characters into

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.

Every public school lunch room is filled with many tables, every day these tables are the perfect place for a student to find where they “belong”. Like Beverly Daniel Tatum states in “Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”, part of the social groups forming in high schools goes to thank adolescents. Tatum writes, “As children enter adolescence, they begin to explore the question of identity, asking ‘Who am I?’ ‘Who can I be?’”(375). At this point in their life everyone begins to see their own interests and hobbies that makes them a little different than others. Because students are starting to realize their differences, in modern day high schools there are many social groups that students can identify with and feel the most comfortable being themselves.

Teenagers are normally seen as loud, obnoxious, and very selfish people. Not all teenagers are like that, I know of a handful of students that are not like that, they are quiet and respectful. Women are considered to be more warm hearted and kind than men, “The dominant, loud traits were more likely considered masculine attributes while comforting, warm traits were viewed as feminine”. And as for cliques, in high school there are usually many types of cliques with their own set of stereotypes. There are the jocks being loud and athletic, nerds being timid but intelligent, band geeks, emos,

The fact that the students in this movie actually become friends at the end shows that when looking at this situation from a sociological view, it can be said that cliques are not always what defines people. Cliques can be a negative and a positive thing. Obviously the negatives to cliques are that people get labeled into stereotypes which can be hurtful to some, and that people isolate themselves from other peers that are not in the clique. Positives of cliques can be that the people in the group have a sense of belonging, support from their friends during tough times, and also have a form of identity.

Middle school was the point in every middle scholar’s life to find a group where they fit in. These groups were called cliques, a group centered around gossiping about others and even gossiping about one another in the group. In middle school this group became your community. The group you do everything with and told everything to. This group is almost like your other family. Sadly, this community, the people you surround yourself with can lead to negative thinking about others. Your community can easily persuade your actions and thoughts because the people you surround yourself with have such a big influence on your life.

Adolescent substance abuse is a phenomenon in our country that has been steadily inclining ever since the 2000’s. The effects of this incline are very straight forward and call for action. The facts are that alcohol and drugs are the leading causes of crime among youth and that alcohol and drugs are the leading factors in teenage suicide. (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., 2014) Because adolescence is such a crucial developmental age the effects of alcohol and drug use are catastrophic. To fully understand this phenomenon we must firs operationalize all of the factors we are trying to study. The DSM V classifies substance abuse as,

Society needs to help teens stay away from cliques in high school also get them involved with the community. Neighborhood cliques pose the highest rate of significant threat for violent crimes in the U.S, versus national-level street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. It's clear that this is a huge problem for teens in high school because cliques in high school can turn into bullying. Thelen Tom, 2015, 22 December, “Bullyproof”, “To Clique or not to Clique”, Cliques can sometimes hold powerful emotional weight and use this power to bully and intimidate other teens.

This is a time where there will be an urge to become closer to peers and become more social with people outside of the usual. This is also a time when notable changes in attitude may be seen. Burnett and Blakemore found that teenagers will are more susceptible to peer pressure, but they also become more resilient to it, especially between the ages of 14 and 18. Teens become more self aware of their ability to refuse peer pressure and make decisions for themselves. Through learning to reject certain people and behaviors, there is also a period of learning who enhances one’s personality. This learning stage brings attention to self-identity and group identity. People usually find a difference in the actions that they would do alone when compared to when peers are involved; this is also called Social Psychology, which is the understanding of individuals behavior in social situations (McLeod). Attitudes and emotions may become impacted by who is interacting with a person and there may be a willingness to do things that originally wouldn’t happen. The difference in personality and interactions is to prepare people for when they leave the stage of adolescence- Hopefully, humans emerge capable of socializing with others and communicating emotions- Even as the human brain continues to socially develop (Blakemore

Although not readily apparent, cliques can be one of the first dominoes that eventually leads to severe bullying, school shootings, and self-harm. Cliques leave the new kid feeling unwanted and excluded in a stage of life that is often full of turmoil. In middle school especially, I felt the consequences

Conformity illustrates the shaping thoughts and beliefs to align with the opinions and thoughts of others. Teens feel this pressure the most. At least 40% of teens say that peer pressure distracts them from reaching their goals. (Peer Pressure Survey Statistics, 2010) Teens are unable to develop a sense of independence to deal with peer pressure. Psychologist Abraham Maslow says “a hierarchy of human needs and one of the needs is to belong and to be accepted by friends, family and peers.” (Grayson, 2015) Due to this, teens end up joining gangs and showing gang behaviour. Gang behaviour and conformity is therefore due to lack of family, guidance, and authority, lack of opportunity, and social and peer pressure.

Cliques and groups are both apart of the norm in elementary and high school. So it’s not unusual that some children may not fall or be accepted into these cliques. Rejection is certain for some children as they enter elementary school and can very well carry on into high school.

Adolescent substance abuse is a major problem in society. There are many risk factors that can contribute to adolescent substance abuse. One of the main risk factors is peer pressure. When adolescents start at a young age there is an increase in health problems, addiction, and over all poor social outcomes. Parental influence has substantial effect on adolescents because the adolescent sees their parents and they learn by their example. Media plays a role in the use of drug and alcohol use among young people. Many school systems have implemented programs that teach adolescents about the problems of substance abuse that is funded

For four long years I felt as if my high school was in a different world in of itself. I had spent that time interacting with an extensive amount of groups, or “cliques”, and getting to know what they do. Through my experiences, I had begun to realize what made this “subculture” high school of sorts run like it did. High school is an incredibly dynamic time for people, and I had changed as a person dramatically from my freshman to senior year. Like many, my freshman year was quite awkward, as remnants of my middle school self remained with me. As time went on, how, I talked to more people and grew out of my passive and shy personality. This did not just randomly happen without reason though. I began to learn and realize who I was and whom I enjoyed talking to in school, which explained why I spent so much time socializing with multiple kinds and groups of people. Everyone’s concept of “normal” was different, and high school was where I learned that lesson and will never forget.

Searching for a fresh group of friends only got more and more difficult as the years passed; it left me depressed, and I remained lonely the majority of high school. Finding a solution to my problem seemed nearly impossible. Everybody already had their set group of friends and people that they associated with. Trying to become a part of the cliques that were already set and stone always came with an obstacle. The teenagers at my high school are not typically open to change, they like everything to be the way they are used to it being and are not willing to welcome new additions to their lives. Considering all of the previous factors, I decided that attempting to place myself in groups that have already been established was not going to benefit me in any way.