Behind the positive aspects of peer groups Adolescents learn not just from their teachers in the classroom, but also from their own peers and wider social groups, who often provide social, emotional and academic support to each other. We spoke to Professor Peter Rieker, Silke Jakob and Giovanna Hartmann Schaelli about their research into the importance of peer-specific socialisation processes, especially outside of school settings. The early teenage
years are an important time in personal development, as many adolescents start to spend more time with their peers than their family and explore their own interests independently of their parents. Based at the University of Zurich, Professor Peter Rieker and his colleagues are investigating the importance of peerspecific socialisation processes in an SNFfunded research project. “We are particularly interested in the socialisation of adolescents in peer groups. For us, the question is; how do peers influence each other?” Rieker outlines. They are studying different groups of peers, mainly of children around the age of 14-16, to gain deeper insights into this question. “It’s a longitudinal qualitative mixed-methods study, so we have different ways to gain knowledge about groups of adolescents. First, we make ethnographic observations, while we also hold interviews with adolescents,” says Silke Jakob, a project assistant at the University. “We also do personal network analysis, so we can see which other groups they are involved in, and which other people are important to them.”
Peer groups These groups are largely organised by the adolescents themselves, in some cases around a shared interest like music. Researchers have also observed less organised groups, for example groups that may have formed serendipitously at a youth centre, as well as groups in which adults are involved to some degree. “We are looking at different groups in terms of their conditions,” says Giovanna Hartmann Schaelli, also a project assistant at the University.
example in a group of girls, we could see that within the peer group some practices in terms of segregation/positioning, intimacy/closeness and communication could be identified as linked to exclusive dyadic relationships.” Hartmann Schaelli says some peers relate to each other in different ways, for example in terms of how they communicate, how they position themselves relative to the group and how they physically interact with each other. “Those dyadic relationships are used to organize support, to share common interest as
We are trying to reach more concrete answers. We want to be able to say in what ways peers are important, and in what ways they help each other to deal with
the challenges of growing up. “It’s a complex interplay between structural conditions, individual and collective actions,” continues Hartmann Schaelli. “What we have seen is that relationships within the peer group are continuously negotiated in situ – and they vary in terms of quality and exclusiveness. For
well as secrets. By doing so, they create a space to withdraw from collective demands of the group,” she outlines. “Furthermore, the results show that especially in situations of conflict, questions about friendships and peer-group normativity arise.”
In a group of boys on the other hand, researchers observed that specific competencies such as skill in playing a specific instrument can be an entry requirement to participate in a group and, vice versa, can also be a condition for having to leave the group again if competencies are insufficient. The break-up of peer relations in particular proved to be an important source of knowledge in research: it also showed that these groups are used pragmatically and according to time availability. With regard to the adult generation, the project’s research shows that parents and pedagogical staff - such as a music coach, for example - can be an important social and professional support, which even promotes the group’s existence. This assistance can be material, for example procuring equipment for the band and providing technical support, like creating a website. The current generation of adolescents have grown up with technology in their everyday lives, and many young people use mobile phones and digital platforms quite intensively. However, Jakob says, evidence from a second survey phase in the project shows that adolescents still value the opportunity to talk to their friends and peers in person. “This generation are so-called digital natives, but this does not mean that conventional forms of communication just stop. They are important too,” she stresses. “When it comes to serious discussions about rules and regulations the boys organized a meeting in person to sit together and talk. But also just being together, sharing snacks or observing each other and listening to the music is a sort of belonging and emphasizes non-verbal communication for which meeting in-person is necessary.”
As a social practice, the current Covid-19 pandemic could not be identified as a constraint, since young people in Switzerland were still able to meet under certain conditions, albeit less so. Through the interviews with the young people, however, it then became apparent that the current pandemic is also an important topic. “Our study shows that young people do experience limitations. Especially in the second wave of the pandemic, the lack of ‘real’ contacts was a major limitation that burdened young people to the point of psychological problems and depressive moods,” says Hartmann Schaelli.
Positive peers One of the positive effects of being part of a peer group is that it provides adolescents with support and a sense of belonging at what is quite a challenging time of life. While individuals in peer groups may sometimes feel pressured to emulate the behaviour of others in the group, for example to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, researchers are keen to stress the more positive aspects of peer groups. “We want to look at how peers gain from each other in terms of support, not only academically, but also socially and emotionally,” outlines Hartmann Schaelli. The hope in the project is to gain more detailed insights into the importance of peer group relationships in socialisation among adolescents. “We are trying to make it more specific and to reach more concrete answers. We want to be able to say in what ways peers are important, and in what ways they help each other to deal with the challenges of growing up,” says Professor Rieker. “We want to get a better understanding of how friendships and peer contexts develop over time.”
Peer-specific Processes Peer-specific Processes of Socialisation during Adolescence Project Objectives
The project “Peer-specific Processes of Socialisation during Adolescence” runs for four years and is a long-term ethnographic study. Different youth groups are accompanied, interviewed and network maps are collected during two field phases. The study allows to gain deeper knowledge about the influence of peer relationships on the socialisation of adolescents.
Project Funding
Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation under award no. 173034. http://p3.snf.ch/project-173034
Contact Details
Giovanna Hartmann Schaelli, MA Institute of Education University of Zurich Faculty Extracurricular Education Freiestrasse 36, CH-8032 Zurich T: +41 44 634 45 77 E: giovanna.schaelli@ife.uzh.ch W: https://www.ife.uzh.ch/en/research/ abe/Research/Peer-Specific-SocialisationProcesses-during-Adolescence.html
GISo Journal
The journal “Society – the Individual – Socialisation: Journal for Research on Socialisation” (GISo) An independent and interdisciplinary forum of scientific debate regarding courses, conditions, and results of socialisation processes. https://giso-journal.ch/index Peter Rieker Giovanna Hartmann Schaelli Silke Jakob
Peter Rieker is Professor of “Extracurricular Education” at the Institute for Educational Science at the University of Zurich, UZH since 2009. His main research interests include e.g. youth research. Giovanna Hartmann Schaelli is affiliated with UZH and collaborates with the University of California, San Diego since 2015. Her research interests lie in the field of adolescents’ social relationship. Silke Jakob did her doctorate on the subject of children’s rights before she joined the project team in 2017.
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EU Research
www.euresearcher.com
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