1-107 - Follow the Leader(s)?! Peer Influence on the Development of Behavior and Friendships in the School Context

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Peer relationships and (normative) peer behaviors constitute crucial contexts for the social and emotional development of adolescents. Hence, more insight into their origins and consequences is of great importance. In this symposium, three studies will be presented that focus on the development of peer behavior and peer relationships and associated individual social and emotional development in the school context.

The first study showed, by means of longitudinal multivariate network analysis, that prosocial and antisocial behavior were similarly associated with the emergence and stability of positive peer relationships but differently associated with the emergence and stability of negative peer relationships. The second study showed that the emergence and stability of prosocial and antisocial peer norms form meaningful constellations within classrooms, and that the development of prosocial and antisocial behavior of students in school were differently associated with different class norm profiles. In the final study, it was shown that the extent to which students follow the class rules according to peers was positively associated with academic self-concept and effortful behavior, and negatively associated with disruptive antisocial behaviors.

In sum, this symposium suggests that positive and negative peer relationships can meaningfully be explained by behaviors in school, and that the development of behaviors in school can meaningfully be explained by classroom norms and rules. Finally, this symposium highlights the importance of investigating the peer context in examining the social and emotional development of students. The discussant concludes with thoughts about the current studies as well as future research in this area.

Sub Unit

• Education, Schooling

Chair

• Johannes Ashwin Rambaran, University of Groningen

Discussant

• Jelle Sijtsema, Tilburg University

Individual Presentations

• The Impact of Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior on the Emergence and Stability of Positive and Negative Peer Relationships - Presenting Author: Johannes Ashwin Rambaran, University of Groningen; Jan Kornelis Dijkstra, University of Groningen; Anke Munniksma, University of Amsterdam; Antonius H. N. Cillessen, Radboud University Nijmegen

• Antisocial and Prosocial Peer Norms: Emergence, Stability and Impact on Adolescent Individual Development - Presenting Author: Lydia Laninga-Wijnen, Utrecht University; Zeena Harakeh, Utrecht University; Jan Kornelis Dijkstra, University of Groningen; Rene Veenstra, University of Groningen; Wilma A.M. Vollebergh, Utrecht University

• Peer Reputation for Responsible Behavior Predicts Change in Motivation and Classroom Behaviors Across the School Year - Presenting Author: Elizabeth North, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Allison M Ryan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor