Understanding & Guiding Whole-person Development
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Session Six: Family and peer influences

What are the influences of families and peers on adolescent development?
- The context of adolescent development: Families and peers
- The nature of family processes
- Parental styles and parent-adolescent relations
- Peer group functions and the importance of friendship
- Parental and peer influences- A false dichotomy?
- Implications for working with parents and adolescents

RAWS2

Learning Outcomes

At end of the session, the participants will be able to:
  1.  Refer to theories and concepts while dealing with school-related adolescent problems
  2.  Comprehend the nature of self-concept and its relationship to students' academic achievement and personal and social 
       development
  3.  State the physical changes (in terms of puberty, nutrition and body image) that adolescents experience
  4.  Comprehend the cognitive changes that adolescents experience
  5.  List different parenting styles and their impact on adolescent development
  6.  Identify the influences attributed by family and peer on adolescent development
  7.  Analyse real cases by applying attachment theory
  8.  Suggest strategies to help adolescents cope with the influences by family and peers
  9.  Apply theories and give sufficient rationales for any intervention plan
10.  Develop different skills (e.g. communication, helping, critical thinking and problem-solving skills) to tackle novel 
       situations and ill-defined problems

Task: Peer Influence (see above)

Example: (The task below is just selected from those tasks assigned in the Learning Guides.)

http://libwisenews.wisers.com/wisenews/index.do
Case 1: 
A 13-yr-old F.1 girl was found dead one summer evening whilst socialising with peers in a disco at Mongkok. It was 
suspected that her death was due to drug abuse, possibly associated with peer group influence. 
School remarked that the girl was of a pleasant personality, well-behaved, courteous and academically high performing. 
She had been involved in offering voluntary remediation help to the junior students. 
The father is a truck driver. Parents got divorced months ago. The girl  and the elder brother were under the custody 
of the mother, living in Yuen Long. Family is currently on social security support. As described, the girl had recently 
started to mix with unpleasant peers, and an abrupt change in her behavior and attitude had been noted. 
(Source: Apple Daily, 27/7/2006)

Case 2: 
A study was conducted by the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005 using peer influence to turn adolescents away 
from tobacco use. The project involved 350 adolescent students attending a number of small group workshops led by 
their older peers. The sessions dealt with health risks associated with tobacco use, how to set goals for a tobacco-free 
lifestyle, how to overcome peer pressure to smoke, and the influence of media and advertising on tobacco use....... 
Dr. Steven Danish, the Director of the Life Skills Centre in VCU Dep't of Psychology commented that peer pressure is the 
main reason why kids smoke, and it would be helpful to have their peers help them fight against smoking. 
(Source: Richmond Times, 8/2/2005)

References (see above)

Further readings and resources:

  1. Buchanan, A., Brinke, J. T., & Flouri, E. (2000). Parental background, social disadvantage,
    public ¡§care¡¨ and psychological problems in adolescence and adulthood. Journal of the
    American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39(11), 1415-23.
    Online http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml
  2. Chao, R. K. (2001). Extending research on the consequence of parenting style for Chinese
    Americans and European Americans. Child Development, 72(6), 1832-1843.
  3. Duncan, G. J., Boisjoly, J., & Harris, K. M. (2001). Sibling, peer, neighbor, and schoolmate
    correlations as indicators of the importance of context for adolescent development.
    Demography, 38(3), 434-447.
    Online http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml