LITERATURE REVIEW

(Clarice Antatico & EJ Kyla Rose Valdez)

Adolescence

            Adolescence in and of itself is a period of human development marked by many changes, transitions and both positive and negative behavior. Today’s adolescence has unique experiences and issues not encountered by previous generations (Drysdale and Rye, 2007). The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function. Furthermore, even within a single nation state or culture there can be different ages at which an individual is considered (chronologically and legally) mature enough for society to entrust them with certain privileges and responsibilities. Such milestones include driving a vehicle, having legal sexual relations, serving in the armed forces or on a jury, purchasing and drinking alcohol, voting, entering into contracts, finishing certain levels of education, and marriage. Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians, including less supervision as compared to preadolescence.

Peer Group Influence

            A peer group is a social group that consists of individuals of the same social status who share similar interests and are close in age. Learn about peer groups, how they influence socialization during childhood and adolescence, and more (Williams, 2016). Peer groups provide perspective outside of the individual’s viewpoints. Members inside peer group also learn to develop relationships with others in the social system. In ways similar to the community, the peer group becomes an agency of enculturation and learning. Even very young children develop a sense of self from their perceptions of important people in their surroundings, including relatives, teachers, and peers. Socioeconomic status, ethnic identity, and parents’ occupations affect how families view themselves and the process by which they socialize their children (Bornsteina, 2002 as cited in Barbour & Scully, 2016). Later, as children leave the home setting, their self-perception and socializing skills become influenced by how their peers view them.

            Peer influence on behavior gradually become more dominant. Barbour and Scully (2016) stated that peer groups have an even stronger influence than that of parents, although that extreme position has been refuted by other researchers (Berk, 2005 as cited in Barbour & Scully, 2016). Gradually, children discover that others can share their feelings or attitudes or have quite different ones. The perspectives of others will affect how children feel about their own families. Children usually have a “family” view of their own and of other cultures. So, when confronted with other perspectives, they often need to rethink their own viewpoints. It is often difficult for children to adjust to the idea that other families can function radically differently from their own and yet hold many of the same attitudes and beliefs and be equally nurturing and secure. The peer group serves as a barometer for children examining themselves and their feelings about self and family (Barbour & Scully, 2016).

Negative and Positive Behaviors of Adolescents

Many adolescents today have problems and are getting into trouble. After all, there are lot of pressures for kids to deal with among friends and family. For some youth, pressure including poverty, violence, parental problems and gangs. Parents and their teenagers are struggling between the youth’s wanting independence while still needing parental guidance. Sometimes all these conflicts result in behavior problems.

Any number of isolated behavior problems can represent adolescent problems and delinquency-shoplifting, truancy, a fight in school, drug or alcoholic ingestion. Sometimes adolescents cannot explain why they act the way they do. They may be just as confuse about it as the adult, or they simply see delinquent behaviors as appropriate ways to deal with what they experience. Parents and love ones may feel scared, angry, frustrated or hopeless. They may feel guilty and wonder where they went wrong. All these feeling are normal, but it is important to understand that there is help available to troubled adolescents and their families. Also, negative effects of peer pressure include doing drugs, smoking, shoplifting, cutting class, having sex, drinking alcohol, physical violence, going late in school, low academic performance(Jenuhho,2008).                  

The widespread uptake of alcohol in adolescence focuses attention on the developmental tasks to be realized in the teenage years. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is characterized by intensified contacts with peers and an entrance into new social context and activities. The relevance for adolescents to achieve intimacy goals, such as closeness and trust, shifts from towards peers (Drysdale and Rye,2007).

Adolescents may not only associate with more deviant peers but also be more susceptible to negative peer influences. Their increased susceptibility may stem from the developmental asynchrony of being more physically mature and treated by others as “older” but not yet having developed the cognitive, emotional, and social skills necessary to resist negative peer influence. Several studies indicate that friend’s deviant behavior is more closely linked with problem behavior among early-maturing youth. Association with deviant peers was also more strongly related to alcohol use and delinquency in mostly white early-maturing adolescents.

The peer group also influences development of children’s socializing skills. These early friendships help children learn how to negotiate and relate to others, including their siblings and other family members. They learn from peers how to cooperate and socialize according to group norms and group-sanctioned modes of behavior. The peer group can influence what the child values, knows, wears, eats, and learns. The extent of this influence, however, depends on other situational constraints, such as the age and personality of children and the nature of the group. Socialization is particularly important for children with disabilities, and it is the reason many programs include peers who are typically developing in special education programs or include children with disabilities in general education classrooms (Barbour & Scully, 2016).

Peer relations are never more salient than in adolescence. In addition to a puberty-related spike in interest in opposite-sex relationships, adolescents spend more time than children or adults interacting with peers, report the highest degree of happiness when in peer contexts, and assign greatest priority to peer norms for behavior (Brown & Larson, 2009). This developmental peak in affiliation motivation appears highly conserved across species: Adolescent rats also spend more time than younger or older rats interacting with peers, while showing evidence that such interactions are highly rewarding (Doremus-Fitzwater, Varlinskaya, & Spear, 2010). Moreover, several developmental neuroimaging studies indicate that, relative to children and adults, adolescents show heightened neural activation in response to a variety of social stimuli, such as facial expressions and social feedback (Burnett et al., 2011).

Theoretical Framework

Although it is widely accepted that peer influence is a powerful factor in adolescent development, profession use of this resource has been generally confined to exceptional or problematic populations. The research literature suggests that peer group programs have produced orderly, productive, and positive academic and rehabilitative environments. Peer group paradigms have also generated positive results in creating productive social group living environments and have helped reduce aggressive behaviors in group living settings (Thomas, 2016).

The impact of peer influence on adolescent development is generally associated with negative connotations. It is widely accepted that membership in peer groups is a powerful force during adolescence. These groups provide an important developmental point of reference through which adolescents gain an understanding of the world outside of their families. Failure to develop close relationships with age mates, however, often results in a variety of problems for adolescents – from delinquency and substance abuse to psychological disorders (Hops, Davis, Alpert, & Longoria, 1997). Furthermore, higher peer stress and less companionship support from peers has been associated with a lower social self-concept in adolescents (Wenz-Gross, Siperstein, Untoh, & Widaman, 1997).

As children progress through adolescence, they build knowledge bases that help them navigate social situations. An abundance of literature has suggested that there is considerable individual variation regarding cognitive skill development during adolescence as it relates to peer influence.

Conceptual Framework      

            In view of the literature presented, figure 1 shows how peers affect the adolescent’s behavior.

           Independent Variable                                                         Dependent Variable