File Type

Working Papers

Publication Date

2009

Description

Participation in peer groups plays a critical role in adolescent development and experience. The significance of peer groups in human development is likely salient throughout the lifespan, but there is reason to expect peer group interactions to most significantly influence adolescents and their growth trajectories. Adolescence, as a period, has always been a point of significant biological, cognitive, and social development, beginning with the onset of puberty. It is this transition from childhood to adulthood where adolescents face identity confusion (Erikson, 1968). It is also during this stage when they slowly try to relinquish their dependence on parents and, instead, shift their attention to peers as their primary source of appraisal and recognition (Steinberg, 1988).  Spending most of their time with their peer group allows them to experience a new sense of belonging, connection, and concern in such company (Newman & Newman, 1976; Baumeister & Leary, 1995).  Since this is also a time when adolescents experiment with a variety of choices, roles, identities, and behaviors, peer groups represent a normative, comparative reference by which adolescents construct and re-organize identity (Rabaglietti & Ciairano, 2008).

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