The Contribution of Peer Values to Children’s Values and Behavior

• In Event: Values and Behaviors: A Developmental Perspective on the Origins of Character

Abstract

Recent years have seen a surge in research devoted to understanding how personal values (abstract, important goals, serving as guides for behavior; Schwartz, 1992) develop early on, typically during childhood and youth. To date, most of this research has focused on the effect of parents, with only a handful of studies examining the role of factors outside the family. Given the importance of peers during childhood and adolescence, our focus in the present study is on the effects of peer values on children’s values. Moreover, as values have been shown to predict behavior (Benish-Weisman, 2019; Vecchione, Döring, Alessandri, Marsicano, & Bardi, 2016), the potential effect of peers on children’s’ and adolescents’ values suggests that values may be one way through which peers affect behavior. Finally, two moderators are suggested to be important in peers’ value influence: gender and age. From childhood, to early adolescence, children tend to play with same-gender peers (Mehta & Strough, 2009; Parker, Rubin, Earth, Wojslawowicz, & Buskirk, 2006). Therefore, peer influence might be stronger within the same gender. Moreover, as peers’ position in children’s lives becomes more prominent with age, peer effects might become stronger with age.
We hypothesized (1) Peers’ values will influence their classmates’ values. (2) Children’s values will mediate the relations between peers’ values and children’s behavior. (3) Peer effects will be particularly potent for same-gendered peers. (4) Peer effects will be stronger with age.
To test our predictions, we used longitudinal data from 26,422 Israeli children in grades 1 and 9, who reported their personal values twice, two years apart, and homeroom teachers’ reports about the behaviors of 6,379 of these children. Values of younger children were measured by the Picture- Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS–C, Döring, Blauensteiner, Aryus, Drögekamp, & Bilsky, 2010). Older children filled the PVQ5X (Berson & Oreg, 2016). In addition, teachers filled a scale asseing four types of school related behaviors that correspond with the four broad value categories (Berson & Oreg, 2016): self-enhancement (caring for one’s own interest), self-transcendence (caring for others), openness-to-change (search for change through new ideas, experiences, and actions), and conservation (stability and the preservation of the status quo).
As predicted, all peers’ values were significantly and positively correlated with children’s corresponding values, measured two years later, over and above children’s values in T1 (see Figure 1). Moreover, peer values had an indirect effect on corresponding child behavior. Separate analyses for male and female peers indicated that peer effects were predominantly of same-gendered peers. In addition, with the exception of self-enhancement values, relationships between peer and children’s values strengthened with age. The findings enhance our understanding of the paths in which peers affect moral development, or specifically values, among children. They also elaborate the factors that influence children’s morally-relevant behaviors, with an emphasis on the distinct contribution of gender and age.

Authors

• Maya Benish-Weisman, University of Haifa
  Presenting Author

• Shaul Oreg, Hebrew University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yair Berson, Bar Ilan University
  Non-Presenting Author