1. Running Head: MIDTERM 1
Family, Peers, and Education
Elizabeth Clanahan
Kansas State University

2. Running Head: MIDTERM 2
Family, Peers, and Education
We may all be cut from the same cloth but when we break down the whole and look at
the individual we are far from similar. I always find significance in life when I think about just
how unique each individual person is. No one will ever experience my life because I am the only
one who will ever live it. Every person is created by their own mold, and even though we can
find both similarities and differences in who we are as people, and how life has shaped us, I find
significance in that our experiences are that of our own. Therefore, in my own personal opinion,
I find it fascinating that through the endless efforts of researchers around the world, we can
compile all the different experiences that people have and find common ground.
When looking back at the time when I was in my own period of adolescence I can
remember a chaotic rollercoaster comprised of many ups and downs. Thinking of my own
personal experiences and going through adolescence as a female, my quickest reacting memory
would be of how emotionally turmoil that time of my life was. A whole other paper could be
written to analyze how gender and sex of an individual affected their development and
experiences through adolescence. For clarity though, the main areas of focus concerning the
influence and development of adolescences, we are going to analyze how the family, peers, and
education plays a role.
The family reminds me of the foundation that a house is built upon. Like a foundation, a
family can offer support and a basis for further development. When we are born into this world,
if we are fortunate enough, our family of origin will have the necessary resources to positively
influence the development of children. As children grow and move into adolescence they do so
with the individuals around them. The first or one of the most common set of people that will
have an influence on adolescences as they develop would be the family.

3. Running Head: MIDTERM 3
Conflict has always been a constant variable, something that will always rear its ugly
head whether expected or not. Overall, conflict shouldn’t be view completely as a negative,
although it may be a necessary evil. Through various experiences of conflict an individual has
the capability to learn and grow from said experiences. To some it may be common knowledge
that during the period of life that is adolescence, the amount of conflict will heighten. For
example, a study by Granic, Dishion, & Hollenstein (2005) showed that conflict increased during
early adolescence (13 to 14 years old) and peaked around age 15 to 16. Afterwards the peak,
conflict was found to decrease to that of earlier levels.
As children transition into adolescence they are faced with many changes and challenges
as they develop and begin to establish their own identity. Adolescents will begin the long,
gradual process of developing autonomy; the development and expression of independence. In
order for an adolescent to develop autonomy they must grow cognitively, ask more questions and
question the information they are given. When people question the information or statements that
are put in front of them, conflict is bound to arrive eventually. Adolescents will begin to demand
reason for the rules they are given, and have the urge to make their own personal lifestyle
choices.
Smetana and Gaines (1999) found in their study of Adolescent-Parent Conflict in Middle
Class African American Families that mild conflicts occurred frequently over every day,
mundane details of family life. It was noted in their study that the types of conflicts or
disagreements were normative of the developmental process of individuation. During this period
of life, adolescents want to make choices when it affects their personal lifestyles and find
themselves fighting for their right to decide. This is especially true when adolescents make
choices with the basis of wanting to fit in with a peer group.

4. Running Head: MIDTERM 4
According to Daddis and Smetana’s (2005) study, adolescents and parents believed that
the adolescents should be able to decide such issues as choice of clothes, hairstyles, friends,
leisure reading, and video and TV preferences relatively early during the teenage years. When I
was finishing up middle school the clique of girls that I associated with all wore knee-high socks
to school. Looking back now it was an odd sense of style but thankfully my parents were
supportive of my clothing decisions and no conflict stemmed from a clash of opinions.
Peers are just as important to the development of adolescence as their parents are; they
are the second group of people that teenagers will be heavily influenced by as they grow. Outside
of the home, peers are the support group that adolescents will turn to and look for guidance from.
As they grow, adolescents will spend increasing amounts of times with their peers, reducing
from the amount of time spent with the family. Middle school and high school are both times
during an adolescences life that a great emphasis on friendship will blossom.
Middle school flows along the same path as early adolescence and that has an effect on
the peers adolescents choose to associate with. Around this time, most of the peers that middle
childhood to adolescent people typically are segregated by sex, in which boys interact primarily
with boys and girls primarily with girls; this is called sex cleavage. When I was in middle school,
majority of my friends were girls; we always stuck with the same sex but as my friends started
going through puberty it was easy to notice all the new interests they had taken in the opposite
sex. Becoming more aware and interested in how they portrayed themselves to their peers of the
opposite sex.
Friendships in Middle School: Influences on Motivation and School Adjustment is a
study that highlights the values of peers during this time of adolescence. The research found the

5. Running Head: MIDTERM 5
friendships that middle childhood and early adolescents maintain, have positive influences on
motivation and adjustment in school.
In 2004, Wentzel, Caldwell, and Barry’s study found the following:
Initially, students who had a friend displayed better social and academic adjustment at the
end of their first year of middle school than did students without a friend. On a positive note,
students initially without friends improved their levels of academic performance from sixth to
eight grade. (Wentzel, Caldwell, and Barry, 2004)
Growing up in a military family, it never became easier to adjust to moving around every
two to three years. Entering middle school in a new state was a difficult transition to make
without any friends. Wentzel et al. (2004) noted in their study that friendship status did not
predict similar changes in prosocial behavior over time, the experience of being friendless at
school did appear to have some emotional cost in that it was related to an increase in levels of
emotional distress from sixth to eighth grade. It always seemed to take my brother and me longer
to adjust to a new school without friends, than when we entered into the next grade with our
fellow peers. Having a good set of peers makes the transition easier in the sense that you have
some type of support besides your parents.
Transitioning from middle school to high school felt even more terrifying without a peer
group. In 2006, Wentzel and Barry continued their research and moved on to exploring how
friend’s influenced prosocial behavior; defined as the “voluntary actions that are intended to help
or benefit another individual or group of individuals.” (Eisenberg & Mussen, 1989) Through
their research it was found that “a friend’s behavior is related to an individual’s prosocial goal
pursuit, which in turn, is related to an individual’s prosocial behavior.” (Barry & Wentzel, 2006)

6. Running Head: MIDTERM 6
This information just affirms the thought even more about how important peers are because of
the positive influences they have on adolescence. Which can range from positive influences on
school performance, adjustment, and behaviors.
Education is not something that everyone has had the privilege of having; an institution
that takes children and raises them through academics. An individual’s process through the
education system here in the United States can have lifelong impacts on the future successes and
accomplishments. Decades can and have been spent in the pursuit of knowledge and further
education.
How an individual makes their way through the education system within the U.S. will
play a role in future endeavors. If a student fairs well, makes grades that allow them to further
their education and move onto higher levels of learning. The school and the people within it
have a strong influence on what an adolescent will not only learn but also on their emotional
state. If an adolescent is faced with bullying at their school and they lose interest in their
education, it can negatively influence their future. Majority of individuals who want to work a
higher paying job will have to attend college at some point and earn a degree. If an adolescent
goes through school and just floats by, they may not have the tenacity or academic skill to build
a decent career. The youth spend a huge amount of their life in school, it affirms that thought
that their education could and does influence them and their development.
The family, the peers, and education that adolescents have in their lives can influence their life in
thousands of different ways. Although development both relies on nature and nurture, all these
areas affect development of adolescents and can have serious impacts, positive or negative.

7. Running Head: MIDTERM 7
References
Barry, M. C. and Wentzel, K. R., (2006). Friend Influence on Prosocial Behavior: The Role
of Motivational Factors and Friendship Characteristics. Developmental Psychology,
42.1, 153-163.
Daddis, C. and Smetana, J. G., (2005). Middle-class African American families’ expectations
for adolescents’ behavioral autonomy. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25,
371-381.
Eisenberg, N., and Mussen, P. H., (1989). The Roots of Prosocial Behavior in Children.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Granic I., Dishion, T. J., and Hollenstein, T. (2005) The Family Ecology of Adolescence. In
G. R. Adams & M. D. Berzonsky (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of adolescence. Oxford
England: Blackwell.
Smetana, J. G. and Daddis, C., (2002). Domain-Specific Antecedents of Parental Psychological
Control and Monitoring: The Role of Parenting Beliefs and Practices. Child
Development, 73: 563–580.
Smetana, J. G. and Gaines, C., (1999). Adolescent-Parent Conflict in Middle-Class African
American Families. Child Development, 70: 1447-1463.
Wentzel, K. R., Caldwell, K. A., and Barry, C. N., (2004). Friendships in Middle School:
Influences on Motivation and School Adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology,
96, 195-203.