Family Peer Relationships

Originally published in 1992, this volume provided an up-to-date overview of recent research concerning the links between family and peer systems. Considerable work in the past had focused on family issues or peer relationships, but these systems had typically been considered separately. This volume bridges the gap across these two important socialization contexts and provides insights into the processes that account for the links across the systems – the ways in which the relationships between these systems shift across development. In addition, the variations in the links between family and peers are illustrated by cross-cultural work, studies of abused children, and research on the impact of maternal depression. In short, the volume provides not only a convenient overview of recent progress at the time but lays out an agenda for future research.

In the 1990s it is no longer "news" that families do not operate independently from other social organizations and institutions. Instead, it is generally recognized that families are embedded in a complex set of relationships with other institutions and contexts outside the family. In spite of this recognition, a great deal remains to be discovered about the ways in which families are influenced by these outside agencies or how families influence the functioning of children and adults in these extra-familial settings--school, work, day-care, or peer group contexts. Moreover, little is known about the nature of the processes that account for this mutual influence between families and other societal institutions and settings. The goal of this volume is to present examples from a series of ongoing research programs that are beginning to provide some tentative answers to these questions. The result of a summer workshop characterized by lively exchanges not only between speakers and the audience, but among participants in small group discussions as well, this volume attempts to communicate some of the dynamism and excitement that was evident at the conference. In the final analysis, this book should stimulate further theoretical and empirical advances in understanding how families relate to other contexts.

A psychologist with a reputation for penetrating to the heart of complex parenting issues joins forces with a physician and bestselling author to tackle one of the most disturbing and misunderstood trends of our time -- peers replacing parents in the lives of our children. Dr. Neufeld has dubbed this phenomenon peer orientation, which refers to the tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction: for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behaviour. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; its effects are painfully evident in the context of teenage gangs and criminal activity, in tragedies such as in Littleton, Colorado; Tabor, Alberta and Victoria, B.C. It is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids. Once understood, it becomes self-evident -- as do the solutions. Hold On to Your Kids will restore parenting to its natural intuitive basis and the parent-child relationship to its rightful preeminence. The concepts, principles and practical advice contained in Hold On to Your Kids will empower parents to satisfy their children’s inborn need to find direction by turning towards a source of authority, contact and warmth. Something has changed. One can sense it, one can feel it, just not find the words for it. Children are not quite the same as we remember being. They seem less likely to take their cues from adults, less inclined to please those in charge, less afraid of getting into trouble. Parenting, too, seems to have changed. Our parents seemed more confident, more certain of themselves and had more impact on us, for better or for worse. For many, parenting does not feel natural. Adults through the ages have complained about children being less respectful of their elders and more difficult to manage than preceding generations, but could it be that this time it is for real? -- from Hold On to Your Kids

Why is it that relationships with family members predict the quality of children's relationships outside the family? A wealth of research has documented that various aspects of family relationships are predictably related to the quality of children's interactions and relationships with peers. Understanding what account for these effects is important both for theories of children's relationships and intervention efforts to ameliorate children's peer relationship difficulties. This volume advances the field by discussing several mechanisms that may account for continuities across family and peer relationships. A variety of theoretical perspectives are represented in the book. For example, both learning and biological explanations are considered. Authors also note two key considerations in investigating family and peer relationships. First, it is necessary to consider the cultural context. The function and meaning of family and peer relationships may differ depending on what roles are played by these relationships in different cultural contexts. Second, it is necessary to consider the child's age. Developmental issues, such as concerns with establishing greater independence at the entrance to adolescence, will impact both family and peer relationships.

Originally published in 1992, this volume provided an up-to-date overview of recent research concerning the links between family and peer systems. Considerable work in the past had focused on family issues or peer relationships, but these systems had typically been considered separately. This volume bridges the gap across these two important socialization contexts and provides insights into the processes that account for the links across the systems – the ways in which the relationships between these systems shift across development. In addition, the variations in the links between family and peers are illustrated by cross-cultural work, studies of abused children, and research on the impact of maternal depression. In short, the volume provides not only a convenient overview of recent progress at the time but lays out an agenda for future research.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

While insights sometimes are slow in coming, they often seem obvious when they finally arrive. This handbook is an outcome of the insight that the topics of social support and the family are very closely linked. Obvious as this might seem, the fact remains that the literatures dealing with social support and the family have been deceptively separate and distinct. For example, work on social support began in the 1970s with the accumulation of evidence that social ties and social integration play important roles in health and personal adjustment. Even though family members are often the key social supporters of individuals, relatively little re search of social support was targeted on family interactions as a path to specifying supporter processes. It is now recognized that one of the most important features of the family is its role in providing the individual with a source of support and acceptance. Fortunately, in recen t years, the distinctness and separateness of the fields of social support and the family have blurred. This handbook provides the first collation and integration of social support and family research. This integration calls for specifying processes (such as the cognitions associated with poor support availability and unrewarding faIllily constellations) and factors (such as cultural differences in family life and support provision) that are pertinent to integration.

This comprehensive, authoritative handbook covers the breadth of theories, methods, and empirically based findings on the ways in which children and adolescents contribute to one another's development. Leading researchers review what is known about the dynamics of peer interactions and relationships from infancy through adolescence. Topics include methods of assessing friendship and peer networks; early romantic relationships; individual differences and contextual factors in children's social and emotional competencies and behaviors; group dynamics; and the impact of peer relations on achievement, social adaptation, and mental health. Salient issues in intervention and prevention are also addressed.