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PubMed1994

Perceived competencies, peer group affiliation, and risk behavior among early adolescents.

This study examined the role of self-esteem and peer group membership in risk behavior among 183 8th graders in a multiethnic school. The hypothesis was that domain-specific rather than global self-esteem would be associated with "crowd" membership that in turn would be related to risk behavior. Data were gathered through informant interviews and individual surveys. Domain-specific self-esteem was related to crowd affiliation as well as to alcohol and cigarette use; global self-esteem was not related. Crowd affiliation related to alcohol use and sexual behavior after controlling for the effects of demographic and self-esteem variables, but crowd membership did not fully mediate the relationship between self-esteem and risk behavior. Availability of alcohol and cigarettes mediated the relationship between crowd affiliation and use of these substances. Findings support growing evidence that multiple adolescent peer groups exist and that group membership is closely tied to behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Correlates of victimization in Chinese children's peer groups.

This study reports a cross-sectional investigation of the behavioral and academic correlates of victimization in Chinese children's peer groups. The participants were 296 children (161 boys and 135 girls; mean age = 11.5 years) from Tianjin, China. Multi-informant assessments (peer nominations, teacher ratings, and self-reports) of peer victimization, aggression, submissiveness-withdrawal, assertiveness-prosociability, and academic functioning were obtained. Structural equation models indicated that peer victimization was associated with poor academic functioning, submissive-withdrawn behavior, aggression, and low levels of assertive-prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that there is considerable similarity in the social processes underlying peer group victimization across Chinese and Western cultural settings.

Achievement↗
PubMed1993

Parenting practices and peer group affiliation in adolescence.

Social scientists have often assumed that parental influence is sharply curtailed at adolescence because of the rising counterinfluence of peer groups, over which parents have little control. The present study tested a conceptual model that challenged this view by arguing that parents retain a notable but indirect influence over their teenage child's peer associates. Data from a sample of 3,781 high school students (ages 15-19) indicated that specific parenting practices (monitoring, encouragement of achievement, joint decision making) were significantly associated with specific adolescent behaviors (academic achievement, drug use, self-reliance), which in turn were significantly related to membership in common adolescent crowds (jocks, druggies, etc). Findings encourage investigators to assess more carefully parents' role in adolescents' peer group affiliations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Victimization in South Korean children's peer groups.

This study reports a cross-sectional investigation of the behavioral, academic, and psychosocial correlates of victimization in South Korean children's peer groups. The participants were 122 children (66 boys, 56 girls; from 10-12-years-old) recruited from a primary school in Seoul, South Korea. Multi-informant assessments (peer nominations, teacher ratings, and self-reports) of peer victimization, social behavior, loneliness/social dissatisfaction, and academic functioning were obtained. Multivariate analyses indicated that peer victimization was associated with poor academic adjustment, loneliness, submissive-withdrawn behavior, aggression, and low levels of assertive-prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that there is considerable similarity in the social processes underlying peer group victimization across South Korean and Western cultural settings.

Aggression↗
PubMed1987

Peer-group affiliation and adolescent self-esteem: an integration of ego-identity and symbolic-interaction theories.

To evaluate expectations derived from ego-identity theory and symbolic-interaction theories about the association between self-concept and peer-group affiliations in adolescence, we examined the self-esteem of 221 7th through 12th graders associated by peers with one of five major school crowds and 106 students relatively unknown by classmates and not associated with any school crowd. Among crowd members, self-esteem was directly related to the position of one's crowd in the peer-group status hierarchy (based on both peer-rated and self-perceived crowd affiliation). Outsiders' self-esteem differed in relation to the accuracy of their reflected appraisal of and the salience they attached to crowd affiliation. Crowd members as a whole exhibited higher self-esteem than outsiders as a whole. Differences, however, were mediated by crowd status, salience of crowd affiliation, and the accuracy of reflected appraisals. An adequate interpretation of the findings required an integration of Festinger's (1954, 1957) social comparisons and cognitive-dissonance theories, Cooley's (1902) notions of reflected appraisal, and Newman and Newman's (1976) extrapolations from ego-identity theory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Peer group victimization as a predictor of children's behavior problems at home and in school.

This study reports a short-term prospective investigation of the role of peer group victimization in the development of children's behavior problems, at home and in school. Sociometric interviews were utilized to assess aggression, victimization by peers, and peer rejection, for 330 children who were in either the third or fourth grade (approximate mean ages of 8-9 years old). Behavior problems were assessed using standardized behavior checklists completed by mothers and teachers. A follow-up assessment of behavior problems was completed 2 years later, when the children were in either the fifth or sixth grade (approximate mean ages of 10-11 years old). Victimization was both concurrently and prospectively associated with externalizing, attention dysregulation, and immature/dependent behavior. Victimization also predicted increases in these difficulties over time, and incremented the prediction in later behavior problems associated with peer rejection and aggression. The results of this investigation demonstrate that victimization in the peer group is an important predictor of later behavioral maladjustment.

Aggression↗
PubMed1991

The relationship of adolescent peer groups to the incidence of psychosocial problems.

This study combined a treatment sample (n = 127) and a control sample (n = 114) of adolescents (ages 13-17) to investigate the relationship between adolescent peer groups and incidence of psychosocial problems. A content analysis resulted in four separate types of peer groups. The group with the lowest level of involvement in school activities was labeled by other adolescents in negative terms. An analysis of variance indicated that the least involved and most negatively labeled group generally had the most positive attitudes toward alcohol and drug use, the lowest levels of perceived harm due to alcohol and drug use, and the highest levels of alcohol abuse, drug use, delinquency, and depression. This group also had the lowest level of self-esteem, most external locus of control, least perceived access to occupational opportunities, and highest level of societal estrangement. The results are interpreted as providing support for both control and labeling theories. Implications for theory-based intervention are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Attachment, self-worth, and peer-group functioning in middle childhood.

We evaluated links between peer-group functioning and indicators of attachment security in relation to both mother and father in middle childhood, among 73 10-year-olds (37 girls). Children's perceptions of security with both parents, coping styles with mother, and self-worth were assessed. Classmates, teachers, and mothers evaluated the participants' peer-related behavioral characteristics. Children's perceptions of security to both parents were related to others' appraisals of their social competence; perceptions of security to father were related to lower aggression. We did not find child gender effects, but children had higher security scores in relation to mother than to father. Self-worth perceptions mediated the relation between attachment and social competence.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1980

Peer group pressures, parental controls and cigarette smoking among 10 to 14 year olds.

Results obtained from previous studies conducted in Britain indicate that secondary schoolboys who smoke are subjected to more peer group pressures and fewer parental controls with respect to smoking. In the present study, information obtained from 384 children in central Scotland suggests that 10 to 14 year olds who smoke/have experimented with cigarettes are generally more responsive to peer group pressures and generally less likely to take account of parental wishes and decisions with respect to a wide range of other activities. These findings--which were independent of age, sex and school catchment area--are discussed with reference to suggestions that children should be used as health educators. It is suggested that adult-orientated children--children who are most likely to support such ventures--are unlikely to discourage peer-orientated children from experimenting with cigarettes. On the other hand, it seems that the success of attempts to use peer-orientated children as health educators depends to a large extent on the success of attempts to discourage adults from smoking.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Street youth, their peer group affiliation and differences according to residential status, subsistence patterns, and use of services.

This study characterizes subcultural differences within an inner-city street youth population. Variations in residential status, subsistence patterns, and service utilization according to peer group affiliation were explored. A brief structured interview was administered to 752 youth, ages 12 to 23 years, who had been living on the streets for two or more consecutive months, or who were fully integrated into the "street economy." Subjects were recruited for the study using a stratified probability sampling design, with 30% recruited from community-based service sites and 70% from street locations and at natural "hang-outs." Five street youth groups were identified: "punks/skinheads," "druggies," "hustlers," "gang members," and "loners." The results demonstrated unique patterns with respect to places stayed/slept, means of financial support and economic subsistence, and use of available services according to peer group affiliation. The implications of these findings and recommendations for future research and service provision are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Early behavior problems as a predictor of later peer group victimization: moderators and mediators in the pathways of social risk.

This study is a prospective investigation of the predictive association between early behavior problems (internalizing, externalizing, hyperactivity-impulsiveness, immaturity-dependency) and later victimization in the peer group. Teacher ratings of the behavioral adjustment of 389 kindergarten and 1st-grade children (approximate age range of 5 to 6 years-old) were obtained, using standardized behavior problem checklists. These ratings predicted peer nomination scores for victimization, obtained 3 years later, even after the prediction associated with concurrent behavior problems was statistically controlled. Further analyses suggested that the relation between early behavior problems and later victimization is mediated by peer rejection and moderated by children's dyadic friendships. Behavior problems appear to play an important role in determining victimization within the peer group, although the relevant pathways are complex and influenced by other aspects of children's social adjustment.

Aggression↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Children's social reasoning about inclusion and exclusion in gender and race peer group contexts.

This study investigated whether children's and adolescents' judgments about exclusion of peers from peer group activities on the basis of their gender and race would differ by both age level and the context in which the exclusion occurred. Individual interviews about exclusion in several different contexts were conducted with 130 middle-class, European American children and adolescents. Younger children were expected to reject exclusion, by using judgments based on moral reasoning, regardless of the potential cost to group functioning, whereas older children were expected to condone exclusion on the basis of group membership in cases in which the inclusion of these children might interrupt effective group functioning. On measures of judgments, justifications for those judgments, and ratings of the appropriateness of exclusion, the vast majority of children used moral reasoning and rejected exclusion in contexts in which only the presence of a stereotype justified it. As expected, however, older children (13 years) were more likely to allow exclusion than younger children (7 and 10 years) when group functioning was threatened, and they justified this exclusion by using appeals to effective group functioning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Influence of family and peer group on the use of drugs by adolescents.

This study of the effect of family and peer group variables on drug use among male adolescents shows that both the drug consumption behavior of parents and peers, and their relationships with the adolescent have an important influence on the latter's own use patterns. With respect to adolescents who do not consume drugs, users of both legal and illegal drugs reported less affectionate family relationships, greater drug consumption by both parents, greater contact with drug-consuming peers, and greater identification with and participation in unconventional groups and activities. These findings coincide to a large extent with the assumptions of some of the main theories of deviant behavior (social control theory, differential association theory, and social learning theory), which suggests the desirability of integrating these theoretical models in an attempt to provide an exhaustive explanation of the genesis and maintenance of drug use by adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

One peer review organization's experience in developing hospital peer groups.

The Health Care Quality Improvement Initiative is moving Medicare's quality improvement activities from review and action on individual cases to the analysis of patterns of care. A primary source for pattern analysis is the mortality data presented in the Medicare Hospital Information release. One of the requirements set forth by the Health Care Financing Administration is that peer review organizations classify hospitals into peer groups in order to compare mortality rates within and among groups. It is hoped that this type of analysis will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between process and outcome for a variety of medical conditions. This report describes the experience of one peer review organization in establishing hospital peer groups.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The peer group as a context: moderating effects on relations between maternal parenting and social and school adjustment in chinese children.

This 2-year longitudinal study examined, in a sample of Chinese children (initial M age = 11 years), the moderating effects of the peer group on relations between maternal supportive parenting and social and school adjustment. Data were collected from multiple sources including peer assessments, teacher ratings, school records, and maternal reports. It was found that whereas group prosocial-cooperative functioning strengthened the role of supportive parenting in helping children develop social and school competence, group antisocial-destructive functioning undermined the contributions of supportive parenting to children's social and academic achievement. The results indicated the significance of the peer group as a social context for socialization and development in Chinese children.

Child↗
PubMed1996

Effects of friendship and gender on peer group entry.

Effects of hosts' conflicting motives (to win a game vs. to be a good friend) on peer group entry processes and outcomes were examined. Subjects were 68 triads (35 female) of 10-12-year-old predominantly White children. Two host friends played a game for a large prize that was forfeited for a smaller prize if the guest (a friend or nonfriend of both hosts) was included. Hosts admitted guest friends more often than nonfriends (44% vs. 26%), suggesting that friendship norms prescribe self-sacrifice. Hosts behaved similarly with guest friends and nonfriends, but guest friends were more active than nonfriends, reflecting freedom derived from friendship security. Female hosts admitted guests more often than male hosts (51% vs. 21%), consistent with communal and agentic gender role prescriptions for girls and boys, respectively. Results suggest that hosts' friendship obligations and psychological orientation affect their response to a newcomer in a group entry situation.

Child↗