Adolescent Development week 7
By the end of this topic, you will be able to:
Describe the key developmental changes in adolescent friendships and explain how these differ from childhood relationships.
Analyse the factors that influence how adolescents choose friends, including homophily, shared behaviours, and digital contexts.
Evaluate the mechanisms and effects of peer influence and peer pressure on adolescent behaviour, including both prosocial and risky outcomes.
Explain the concepts of popularity and unpopularity, including their relationship to social skills, social cognition, and reputational continuity.
Discuss the nature and impact of bullying in adolescence, and identify the evolving role of friendships during emerging adulthood.
7.1 | Development Changes in Friends
Friendship in Adolescence
During adolescence, friendships become more salient, intimate, and psychologically complex. While childhood friendships are often based on shared activities and proximity, adolescent friendships increasingly prioritise:
Emotional closeness
Mutual understanding
Self-disclosure
These developments are supported by maturing cognitive and emotional capacities, including:
Enhanced perspective-taking
More sophisticated empathy (Selman, 1980; Youniss, 1980)
As adolescents improve in abstract thinking, they become better able to reflect on themselves and others, enabling more nuanced, reciprocal friendships. Notably, self-disclosure becomes a cornerstone of adolescent friendships and is closely linked to:
Identity exploration
Emotional regulation (Buhrmester & Prager, 1995)
Evolving Functions of Friendship
As adolescents grow, the functions of friendship evolve. Whereas younger children tend to rely on parents for emotional support, adolescents increasingly turn to peers to fulfil their needs for:
Companionship
Validation
Intimacy (Rubin et al., 2006)
Friendships during this stage play a critical role in helping adolescents navigate the dual developmental tasks of:
Autonomy (independence from caregivers)
Relatedness (forming meaningful social bonds) (Allen & Tan, 2016)
The increased importance of peer relationships is reflected in:
The greater amount of time adolescents spend with friends
The emotional weight these relationships carry
However, adolescent friendships can be a double-edged sword:
They can foster prosocial behaviour, emotional support, and personal growth
But they can also increase vulnerability to:
Peer pressure
Co-rumination
Risk-taking behaviours (Rose, 2002; Dishion & Tipsord, 2011)
Gender Differences in Friendship
Friendships in adolescence show increasing gender differences in structure and emotional expression:
Female adolescents:
More likely to form dyadic (one-on-one), emotionally expressive relationships
Place greater emphasis on closeness and self-disclosure
Male adolescents:
Often form larger group-based friendships
Focus more on shared activities and less on emotional intimacy (Rose & Rudolph, 2006)
These differences have implications for emotional development and mental health:
Girls may benefit more from the emotional support of close friendships
However, they may also be more vulnerable to co-rumination and internalising problems (e.g., anxiety or depression)
Key Concepts/Definitions
Adolescent friendships are characterised by increased emotional closeness, mutual understanding, and self-disclosure, differentiating them from the activity-based friendships of childhood.
Self-disclosure becomes a central feature of adolescent friendships, supporting emotional regulation and identity development.
Functions of friendship shift during adolescence, with peers increasingly providing emotional support, validation, and a context for autonomy and relatedness.
Peer influence can have both positive and negative effects, fostering prosocial behaviour or increasing susceptibility to co-rumination and risky behaviours.
Gender differences in friendship emerge in adolescence, with girls tending toward emotionally intimate dyads and boys favouring group-based, activity-oriented friendships.
7.2 | Choosing Friends
Friendship Selection in Adolescence
As adolescents mature, friendship selection becomes increasingly guided by psychological similarity rather than just proximity or shared activities. Adolescents begin to seek out peers who reflect their:
Attitudes
Values
Interests
Personality traits (Rubin et al., 2006)
This process, known as homophily, reflects the broader developmental shift toward identity exploration and the desire for validation during a period of rapid self-concept formation (Kindermann, 2007). Like-minded peers offer a sense of security, acceptance, and a platform for deeper, more authentic connections.
Emotional and Behavioural Similarities
Adolescents also tend to choose friends with similar emotional and behavioural tendencies. For instance, shared levels of:
Academic motivation
Risk-taking behaviour
Emotional expressiveness
can strengthen friendship bonds (Hartup, 1996). These similarities provide a foundation for mutual understanding, but also influence the types of experiences adolescents encounter within their peer groups. While such alignment can lead to positive reinforcement of prosocial values, it may also increase the likelihood of:
Negative peer influence
Deviant behaviour normalisation (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011)
This highlights that adolescent friendship choices—though often intentional—can have significant developmental consequences.
Social Context and Peer Networks
The social context strongly shapes friendship selection. Factors such as:
School environments
Extracurricular activities
Online platforms
broaden the pool of potential friendships. Adolescents commonly form connections through shared spaces and repeated exposure, such as:
Classes
Sports teams
Social media platforms (Laursen & Bukowski, 1997)
Even as adolescents begin exercising more autonomy in their social lives, parental influence—particularly through monitoring and value transmission—continues to shape the social environments they access (Mounts, 2004).
Individual Agency & Parental Influence
Adolescents gain autonomy in choosing friends
But… parents still play a role
Monitoring social environments
Setting values and expectations
Influence is often indirect
Encouraging structured activities
Modelling social skills and boundaries
Final choices often reflect a blend of self-direction and parental shaping
Technology and Friendship Development
The rise of digital communication has dramatically transformed how adolescents initiate and maintain friendships.
Expanding Access
Traditionally, friendships were limited to physical spaces like schools or neighbourhoods. Now, platforms such as:
Instagram
Snapchat
TikTok
Discord
Online gaming communities
enable adolescents to connect across geographic, cultural, and social boundaries (Boyd, 2014). This broadens the quantity and diversity of potential friends.
Curated Self-Presentation
A defining feature of online spaces is the ability to curate identity. Adolescents selectively share posts, photos, and content that reflect:
Personal style
Humour
Social causes
Interests (e.g., anime, music, activism)
Through this process, adolescents assess compatibility and seek friendships based on shared values or aesthetics (Subrahmanyam & Šmahel, 2011). For many—especially those exploring marginalised or niche identities—online platforms offer a unique space for interest-based affiliation and community building.
Social Capital and Strategic Selection
Digital friendship selection is also shaped by social capital—the perceived popularity or influence of a peer online. Adolescents may gravitate toward individuals who display:
Large follower counts
Frequent engagement
High social visibility (Nesi et al., 2018)
This can result in strategic curation of one’s own online image to attract socially desirable peers, sometimes at the expense of deeper traits like trust or empathy. In such cases, friendship selection becomes more performance-driven, focusing on appearances rather than relational depth.
Additionally, public metrics (likes, views, follows) introduce quantified social feedback, which subtly guides how adolescents evaluate their own and others’ social worth.
Social Comparison and Peer Surveillance
Social media also amplifies social comparison and peer monitoring. Adolescents frequently observe others’:
Interactions
Social events
Posted content
This can shape feelings of inclusion, exclusion, or aspiration. For example:
Seeing photos from a party they weren’t invited to may lead an adolescent to seek new friendships perceived as more inclusive
Others may align with peers who reflect aspirational qualities, such as confidence, creativity, or aesthetic appeal
While these processes can lead to meaningful and affirming friendships, they can also generate:
Anxiety around acceptance
Relational instability
Heightened focus on appearance over authenticity
Key Concepts/Definitions
Friendship selection in adolescence becomes increasingly based on psychological similarity, including shared values, interests, and personality traits.
Homophily refers to the tendency to form friendships with peers who are similar in attitudes and behaviours, supporting identity exploration and validation.
Behavioural similarity in areas such as academic motivation or risk-taking influences friendship formation and can reinforce both positive and negative behaviours.
Social context—including school settings, extracurricular activities, and digital platforms—affects which peers adolescents interact with and choose as friends.
Parental influence continues to shape adolescents’ friendship networks indirectly through monitoring and guiding social environments.
Curated self-presentation on social media allows adolescents to construct and display selected aspects of identity, influencing interest-based friendships.
Social capital in digital spaces—measured by popularity metrics like follower count and engagement—can influence friendship choices and self-presentation strategies.
Online peer surveillance and social comparison may drive friendship shifts, affecting adolescents’ sense of belonging and increasing relational anxiety.
7.3 | Friends' Influence & Peer Pressure
Peer Influence in Adolescence
Friends and peer groups play a powerful role in shaping adolescent development—affecting behaviours, attitudes, identity formation, and emotional wellbeing. This influence stems from adolescents’ growing need for acceptance and belonging, coupled with a developmental shift from parental dependence to peer affiliation (Brown & Larson, 2009).
As adolescents explore who they are and where they fit socially, they become increasingly sensitive to:
Group norms and expectations
Peer behaviours and values
This social sensitivity is especially heightened during adolescence, in both offline and online settings, where conformity often brings rewards like approval, inclusion, or status.
Mechanisms of Peer Influence
Peer influence operates through both direct and indirect pathways:
Direct peer pressure involves explicit encouragement or coercion.
→ Example: being urged to drink alcohol at a party.Indirect influence is more subtle and often more pervasive.
→ Adolescents may adopt attitudes or behaviours that align with their peer group without any explicit prompting, a process known as normative social influence (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011).
→ Examples: mirroring friends’ fashion choices, language, or risk-taking behaviours.
Influence is particularly strong in close friendships, where trust and emotional connection increase the likelihood of:
Mutual reinforcement
Modelling behaviours (Allen & Antonishak, 2008)
Prosocial Peer Influence (Not Always Negative!)
While peer influence is often linked to risky behaviours—such as substance use, delinquency, or early sexual activity—it can also support positive development. For example, peers may encourage:
Academic engagement
Seeking emotional support
Participation in structured activities (Barry & Wentzel, 2006)
The extent to which adolescents are susceptible to peer influence depends on several individual and contextual factors, such as:
Self-esteem
Family relationships
Neural sensitivity to social feedback (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007)
Younger adolescents are generally more susceptible than older adolescents, in part due to the still-maturing brain systems involved in self-regulation and social decision-making.
Peer Presence and Risky Decision-Making
A key area of research has focused on how peer presence increases risky behaviour in adolescents. Neurodevelopmental studies show that:
The socioemotional system (linked to reward sensitivity) matures faster than the cognitive control system (responsible for impulse control and future-oriented thinking) (Casey et al., 2008)
This developmental imbalance makes adolescents more likely to:
Seek immediate rewards
Take more risks when peers are present, even without direct pressure
Evidence from Research
In simulated driving tasks, adolescents were significantly more likely to:
Run yellow lights
Speed
— when friends were in the car, compared to when they were alone (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005)
The mere presence of peers can activate reward-related brain regions, increasing:
Risk salience
Impulsivity
Reduction in inhibition
This helps explain why peer contexts are linked to behaviours like:
Drinking
Reckless driving
Vandalism
—particularly when these actions are perceived as earning group approval or enhancing social status.
Key Concepts/Definitions
Peer influence refers to the powerful effect that friends and peer groups have on adolescents’ behaviours, attitudes, identity, and emotional development.
Normative social influence occurs when adolescents change their behaviours or beliefs to align with peer norms, often without direct pressure.
Direct peer pressure involves explicit encouragement or coercion to engage in specific behaviours, such as trying alcohol or skipping school.
Prosocial peer influence highlights that peers can also promote positive behaviours like academic motivation, emotional support, and community involvement.
Risky decision-making is amplified in peer settings due to developmental imbalances between reward sensitivity and cognitive control systems during adolescence.
7.4 | Popularity & Unpopularity
Popularity and Peer Status in Adolescence
Popularity becomes especially important in adolescence as peer relationships gain emotional and social weight. Research distinguishes two key forms of popularity:
Sociometric popularity: being well-liked by peers; linked with prosocial traits such as friendliness, empathy, and cooperation.
Perceived popularity: being seen as socially influential or high-status, regardless of actual likeability. This form is often associated with visibility and dominance, and may involve both prosocial and antisocial behaviours, including gossip or strategic exclusion—particularly among girls (Cillessen & Rose, 2005; LaFontana & Cillessen, 2002).
Effects of Unpopularity
Unpopularity—through rejection, neglect, or victimisation—can have significant effects on adolescents’ development. For example:
Rejected adolescents (actively disliked): at risk for loneliness, depression, academic disengagement, and behavioural issues.
Neglected adolescents (socially overlooked): may experience social withdrawal or low self-esteem due to limited peer connections (Rubin et al., 2006).
Peer acceptance is a central developmental task in adolescence, and difficulties in this area can:
Reinforce internalising symptoms
Limit social learning
Restrict access to support networks
Social Skills and Social Cognition
Adolescents’ social skills are crucial in shaping peer relationships and popularity. These include:
Initiating and maintaining conversations
Expressing empathy
Cooperating and resolving conflict
Understanding and adapting to social norms
Those who can regulate their emotions and adjust behaviour to different contexts are more likely to be well-liked and included (Rubin et al., 2006).
Social Cognition
Social cognition—the ability to understand others’ thoughts, feelings, and intentions—is equally vital. It helps adolescents:
Interpret social cues
Anticipate reactions
Respond appropriately in social settings
According to Crick and Dodge’s (1994) model, social information processing involves:
Encoding cues
Interpreting intent
Selecting goals
Generating responses
Deficits in this process (e.g., hostile attribution bias, where neutral actions are perceived as threatening) can lead to:
Aggression
Withdrawal
Peer rejection
Social skills and cognition are shaped by:
Individual traits (e.g., temperament, neurodevelopmental conditions)
Family interactions and peer feedback
Intervention programmes that teach problem-solving, emotion regulation, and communication have shown success in improving peer outcomes—particularly for at-risk adolescents.
Continuity of Peer Status
Patterns of popularity and unpopularity are often established early and remain relatively stable across development (Coie & Kupersmidt, 1983). Contributing factors include:
Behavioural consistency (e.g., aggression, withdrawal, prosociality)
Peer reputations, which can persist even as behaviours change
Once adolescents are labelled (e.g., “cool,” “awkward”), these labels often:
Shape others’ perceptions
Reinforce social roles and expectations
Developmental Consequences
Popular adolescents: gain confidence and access to resources, but may feel pressure to conform to group norms or maintain a persona
Rejected adolescents: risk internalising peer rejection, leading to anxiety, low self-esteem, or further withdrawal
Environmental Transitions
School transitions (e.g., moving to high school) can disrupt peer status patterns, offering opportunities for:
Reputation reshaping
New social bonds
Success depends on adolescents’ social skills, self-confidence, and peer receptivity. Those who lack these tools or who carry visible differences may continue to face challenges.
Bullying and Peer Victimisation
Bullying is a widespread issue during adolescence and is closely linked to status, power, and group dynamics. It involves repeated aggression and may be:
Physical (e.g., hitting)
Verbal (e.g., teasing)
Relational (e.g., exclusion, rumour-spreading)
Digital (e.g., cyberbullying)
Vulnerability and Impact
Victims often occupy socially marginalised positions and may be seen as different due to identity, behaviour, or appearance (Juvonen & Graham, 2014).
The psychological consequences of victimisation include:
Anxiety
Depression
Loneliness
Suicidal ideation
School disengagement
These effects can extend into adulthood, especially if bullying is chronic or multi-contextual (e.g., school and online). Victimisation can also impair:
Identity development
Trust in others
Emotional regulation
Strategic Bullying and Social Hierarchies
Not all bullying stems from hostility—some adolescents, especially those perceived as popular, may use relational aggression as a tool for maintaining status and managing group boundaries (Rose et al., 2004). In such cases, bullying reflects:
Social strategy, not personal dislike
A means of controlling peer dynamics
Addressing Peer Problems
Effective intervention requires more than punishing individual bullies. It should include:
Shifting group norms
Promoting empathy and inclusion
Creating school climates where aggression is not rewarded with popularity
Peer-led initiatives and bystander intervention programmes are promising approaches to:
Change peer group dynamics
Reduce bullying at a systemic level
Key Concepts/Definitions
Sociometric popularity refers to being well-liked by peers and is typically associated with prosocial behaviours such as kindness and cooperation.
Perceived popularity refers to being seen as socially influential or dominant, and may involve both prosocial and antisocial behaviours like exclusion or gossiping.
Unpopularity includes peer rejection, neglect, and victimisation, and is linked to poor socioemotional outcomes such as loneliness, depression, and academic disengagement.
Social skills are interpersonal behaviours—like empathy, conflict resolution, and communication—that help adolescents build friendships and gain peer acceptance.
Social cognition refers to adolescents’ ability to understand others’ thoughts and feelings, which helps interpret social cues and predict peer reactions.
Reputational continuity is the tendency for peer status and labels (e.g., “popular” or “awkward”) to remain stable across childhood and adolescence due to behavioural patterns and peer expectations.
Environmental transitions like starting high school can offer opportunities to reshape peer status, depending on adolescents’ social competence and support systems.
Bullying is repeated aggression (physical, verbal, relational, or digital) that exploits power imbalances and targets socially vulnerable peers.
Peer victimisation leads to significant psychological harm, including anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal, and can disrupt identity and emotional development.
Strategic bullying may be used by perceived popular adolescents to maintain dominance and control, highlighting the role of group norms and peer hierarchies in reinforcing such behaviours.
7.5 | Friendships in Emerging Adulthood
Emerging adulthood (typically ages 18–25) is a distinct developmental stage characterised by identity exploration, instability, and changing social priorities (Arnett, 2000). During this time, friendships undergo significant transformation as individuals transition into more independent roles.
Compared to adolescence, friendships in this stage become:
More selective
More emotionally intimate
Based on shared values, rather than convenience or proximity
While adolescent friendships often emerge from shared settings (e.g., school, neighbourhoods), emerging adults increasingly choose friends based on mutual interests, life goals, and emotional needs. These deeper friendships provide a sense of stability and belonging during a time marked by major life transitions.
As emerging adults:
Leave the parental home
Enter post-secondary education or the workforce
Explore different lifestyles or ideologies
Their friendship networks typically narrow, but also deepen in quality. Although they may have fewer friends than in adolescence, these relationships tend to prioritise:
Trust
Loyalty
Emotional disclosure (Shulman & Connolly, 2013)
Friendships at this stage often resemble adult intimate relationships in their depth and reciprocity. They provide a vital context for:
Practicing conflict resolution
Developing emotional regulation
Offering mutual support
However, these relationships are also fluid. Factors like geographic mobility, romantic relationships, and career demands can alter or end previously close friendships. This means friendships in emerging adulthood require:
Adaptability
Intentional effort to maintain connections
Friendships in emerging adulthood play a protective role in mental health. Strong peer connections are associated with:
Lower levels of loneliness, anxiety, and depression
Higher levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction (Demir et al., 2007)
For individuals who delay or avoid long-term romantic partnerships, close friendships may take on increased importance—providing emotional intimacy, identity affirmation, and companionship.
However, this period can also present challenges:
Some may struggle with the loss of adolescent friendships
Others may find it difficult to form new connections in unfamiliar environments, such as university campuses or new workplaces
The central developmental task becomes finding a balance between independence and connection. Emerging adults must learn to:
Invest in friendships meaningfully
Navigate adult responsibilities alongside social bonds
Key Concepts/Definitions
Emerging adulthood is a distinct developmental stage (ages 18–25) marked by identity exploration, instability, and changing social priorities.
Friendship selectivity increases during emerging adulthood, with individuals forming fewer but deeper relationships based on shared values, emotional support, and life goals.
Friendship quality typically improves in this period, with greater emphasis on trust, loyalty, and reciprocity, mirroring aspects of adult intimate relationships.
Life transitions such as moving away from home, starting work or university, and changing lifestyles can alter friendship networks, requiring effort and adaptability to maintain connections.
Friendship support during emerging adulthood is linked to better mental health outcomes, including lower loneliness and depression, and higher self-esteem and life satisfaction.