Sharing vs. Power in Peer Group

Sharing vs.
Power in peer relationships
Do birds of a feather really flock together? The science says yes. People
do tend to choose friends who are similar to them. You also
become more like your friends over time. And that can influence
your health.
Many behaviors spread socially. Examples include how much you

exercise, how much alcohol you drink, whether you smoke, and
what foods you eat.
Scientists are still trying to untangle why that is. Studies have found that
activity in certain brain areas changes when other people are
around. That can affect what you choose to do.
But this work also suggests that you can harness the power of social
relationships to gain healthier habits—and motivate others to do
the same.
Social Influence
“People care about what others think across all different age
groups—and that influences how much they value different ideas
and behaviors,” says Dr. Emily Falk at the University of Pennsylvania.
She studies how social networks affect decision making. This is called
social, or peer, influence.
Teens are especially responsive to peer influence. That’s because

their brains undergo changes that make them highly attuned to social
situations. At the same time, the reward system in the teen brain
becomes extra sensitive.
The reward system is a brain circuit that causes feelings of

pleasure. It’s activated by things we enjoy, like eating good food. It’s
also activated by social rewards, like getting a compliment.
And teens are just learning to navigate the social world. Understanding
other people’s values and being influenced by them are important
parts of socializing. Being influenced on things like clothing choices
and musical taste can help teens learn to fit in and make friends.
But taking part in risky behaviors, like drinking alcohol or
smoking, can lead to health or legal consequences.
“Research shows that even just having another peer around can
change the reward response in the brain and also the risk-taking
tendencies of teenagers,” says Falk. Her team studies how peers affect
teens’ driving behaviors and smoking decisions.
Some people seem to be more easily influenced than others, too.
They may be more sensitive to feeling included or excluded by
others. Or they may be more sensitive to social signals, like the
tone of someone’s voice or their body language.
Dr. Mary Heitzeg’s team at the University of Michigan is doing research

to better understand how a person’s biology and reactions to social
situations affect whether they develop substance use or mental health
problems later in life.
Using brain scans, the team is looking at how teens’ brains respond to
being socially included or excluded. They’re also looking at how the
brain’s reward system responds to different situations.
Heitzeg’s team is part of a large 10-year effort, called the ABCD Study, to
understand the factors that influence teens’ health and risk behavior in
the long term. Factors can include families, friends, schools,
neighborhoods, and communities.
“Adolescence is such a risky period,” says Heitzeg. “That’s when

sexual initiation happens, initiation and escalation of substance
use happens, as well as other types of risky and delinquent
behaviors, like risky driving.”
But it’s also a time that peer influence can help teens thrive if it gets
them more involved with their community or helps them learn behaviors
to get along with others, like how to cooperate or be empathetic.
Peer Quality, Not Quantity

Positive and negative peer influences can affect more than just
your behavior. They can also change the way you feel.
Studies show that, in general, the more friends you have and the
more time you spend with them, the happier you are. Friends give
you people to share your feelings with, to get new perspectives
from, or to just do fun activities with.
But it’s the quality of those friendships—not quantity—that really

makes the difference. Quality of friendships has been linked to
higher life satisfaction and better mental health.
“We’ve all experienced letting a friendship go because it didn’t feel

great,” says Dr. Rebecca Schwartz-Mette of the University of Maine. Her
lab studies how peer relationships affect the emotional development of
children and teens.
Friendships you feel you want to let go of may be low quality. They
might be fraught with conflict, criticism, and aggression. For
youth, low quality friendships are linked to poor academic performance
and behavioral issues.
High quality friendships provide understanding, support, and

validation of your self-worth. These types of friendships are more
stable and are more satisfying.
Spending time with friends can be especially helpful for people

with anxiety or depression. However, Schwartz-Mette’s studies have
shown that depression can also be worsened by certain friendship
qualities. One is called co-rumination.
“Co-rumination is basically when people get together and talk excessively

about everything that’s going wrong and how bad they feel,” she
explains. “With that person, they feel understood, validated, and that this
person is emotionally close to them. But they get more depressed
because they’re focusing their attention on negative things.”
Research suggests that it may help to refocus such friendships. Talk

about both positive and negative things in your day. Look for healthy
activities to get out and do together, like going for a walk. Encourage
each other to keep up healthy habits like physical activity, healthy eating,
and getting a good night’s sleep.
“Noticing that our behavior is influenced by other people, we can be

intentional and try to focus on the people who are doing the things we
want to get into ourselves,” Falk explains. “Sharing your healthy habits
with other people could make a real difference to somebody else.” And to
yourself.
Parents can help guide their kids toward more positive social
experiences, too (see the Wise Choices box for tips). But everyone
can benefit from high quality friendships that help you nurture
healthy habits.
Close Friendships
Peer relationships are particularly important for children. They can be

supportive but also challenging. Peer rejection may lead to behavioural problems
later in life. However, peer relationships can be challenging, as well as supportive
(Rubin, Coplan, Chen, Bowker, & McDonald, 2011). Being accepted by other
children is an essential source of affirmation and self-esteem. At the same time, peer
rejection can foreshadow later behaviour problems (especially when children are
rejected due to aggressive behaviour). With increasing age, children confront the
challenges of bullying, peer victimization, and managing conformity pressures. Social
comparison with peers is an important means by which children evaluate their skills,
knowledge, and personal qualities, but it may cause them to feel that they do not
measure up well against others. For example, a boy who is not athletic may feel
unworthy of his football-playing peers and revert to shy behavior, isolating himself,
and avoiding conversation. Conversely, an athlete who does not “get” Shakespeare
may feel embarrassed and avoid reading altogether. Also, with the approach of
adolescence, peer relationships become focused on psychological intimacy,
involving personal disclosure, vulnerability, and loyalty (or its betrayal)—which
significantly influences a child’s outlook on the world. Each of these aspects of peer
relationships requires developing very different social and emotional skills than those
that emerge in parent-child relationships. They also illustrate the many ways that
peer relationships influence the growth of personality and self-concept.
Figure 11.2.2. Functions of friendship. By Florida State College at Jacksonville,

licensed under CC-BY 4.0 .
Peer Relationships
As children become adolescents, they usually begin spending more time with their
peers and less time with their families, and these peer interactions are increasingly
unsupervised by adults. Children’s notions of friendship often focus on shared
activities, whereas adolescents’ notions of friendship increasingly focus on intimate
exchanges of thoughts and feelings.
During adolescence, peer groups evolve from primarily single-sex to mixed-sex.

Adolescents within a peer group tend to be similar to one another in behavior and
attitudes, which has been explained as being a function of homophily (adolescents
who are similar to one another choose to spend time together in a “birds of a feather
flock together” way) and influence (adolescents who spend time together shape each
other’s behavior and attitudes).
Figure 11.2.1.Reciprocal influences on friend selection and personal characteristics.

Peer pressure is usually depicted as peers pushing a teenager to do something
that adults disapprove of, such as breaking laws or using drugs. One of the
most widely studied aspects of adolescent peer influence is known as deviant peer
contagion (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011). This influence is the process by which peers
reinforce problem behaviour by laughing or showing other signs of approval that then
increase the likelihood of future problem behaviour. Although deviant peer contagion
is more extreme, regular peer pressure is not always harmful. Peers can serve both
positive and negative functions during adolescence. Negative peer pressure can
lead adolescents to make riskier decisions or engage in more problematic behaviour
than they would alone or in the presence of their family. For example, adolescents
are much more likely to drink alcohol, use drugs, and commit crimes when they are
with their friends than when they are alone or with their family. However, peers also
serve as an essential source of social support and companionship during
adolescence, and adolescents with positive peer relationships are happier and better
adjusted than those who are socially isolated or who have conflictual peer
relationships.
Crowds are an emerging level of peer relationships in adolescence. In contrast to
friendships (which are reciprocal dyadic relationships) and cliques (which refer to
groups of individuals who interact frequently), crowds are characterized more by
shared reputations or images than actual interactions (Brown & Larson, 2009)These
crowds reflect different prototypic identities (such as jocks or brains) and are often
linked with adolescents’ social status and peers’ perceptions of their values or
behaviors. Eventually, these crowds and cliques become less critical to teens as
they place more value on close friendships and romantic relationships.
Crowds
Crowds are large groups of adolescents socially connected by a shared image and
reputation (Brown, 2004), especially within the setting of a single school. A single
person can belong to more than one crowd if their image matches the crowds’
criteria (Brown, 2004; Mory, 1994). Because membership in a crowd depends on
peers’ perceptions, crowds in any given peer group will correspond to the local
preconceived “types” of adolescents. Specific stereotypes vary from place to place,
but many remain consistent. They are based on peer status, socioeconomic status,
residential area, activities, social characteristics, or a combination of attributes
(jocks, nerds, populars, and druggies are among the most commonly observed)
(Brown, 2004; Mory, 1994; Arnett, 2002). Crowds are very different from cliques:
while cliques are relatively small, close-knit groups based on frequent interaction and
collectively determined membership, members of a crowd may not even know each
other. Crowd membership reflects external assessments and expectations, providing
a social context for identity exploration and self-definition as adolescents internalize
or reject their crowd identities.

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Sharing vs.

Power in peer relationships

Many behaviors spread socially. Examples include how much you

Teens are especially responsive to peer influence. That’s because

The reward system is a brain circuit that causes feelings of

Dr. Mary Heitzeg’s team at the University of Michigan is doing research

“Adolescence is such a risky period,” says Heitzeg. “That’s when

Peer Quality, Not Quantity

But it’s the quality of those friendships—not quantity—that really

“We’ve all experienced letting a friendship go because it didn’t feel

High quality friendships provide understanding, support, and

Spending time with friends can be especially helpful for people

“Co-rumination is basically when people get together and talk excessively

Research suggests that it may help to refocus such friendships. Talk

“Noticing that our behavior is influenced by other people, we can be

Peer relationships are particularly important for children. They can be

Figure 11.2.2. Functions of friendship. By Florida State College at Jacksonville,

During adolescence, peer groups evolve from primarily single-sex to mixed-sex.

Figure 11.2.1.Reciprocal influences on friend selection and personal characteristics.

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