In adolescents, it is very important to how they get along with others. Good social skills are important for success. Social skills may include how we communicate with others, how to make friends, and how to act in different social situations. Adolescents spend a lot more of their time communicating with their peers than they do with their families. When it comes to peer relationships, adolescence is about the type of people you choose to be around and the type of bonds that are formed. Peers are the people with whom you are the same age and share commonalities, while friends are the people you have developed a valued relationship. For Sandra, her peers are the people that she goes to school with and her friends are the people that she talks to consistently. For young children friends are people who they play with and or have common activities with, while adolescents have a more analytic way of who they consider their friends. When speaking with Sandra the question “Who do you consider your friends?” was asked. Sandra described her friends as the people who she can confide in, people she looks for emotional support from, people who are there to help her if she needs a hand, and people who accept her for who she is, and it goes both ways as that’s the person she is for her friends. Sandra went on to give an example of a person she considers her best friend. Sandra’s best friend is the person she confines in about romantic relationships, in terms when she has a problem, she seeks out answers or ideas from this person and this is a form of informational support. She also stated that she would ask her friends to go places with her especially if it’s a new environment and this is companionship support. The person Sandra considers her best friend also provides esteem support to her by supporting her and encouraging her by giving her that reassurance she is capable.
Adolescents are vulnerable to peer pressure. Peer pressure is the idea that one can be influenced to do something by one’s group and it could be negative or positive. Sandra was asked if she had been subjected to peer pressure. Sandra reported that at the beginning of high school, she wanted to fit in so she made friends with a group of girls. In the group, she reported that the girl would skip classes and encouraged her to do the same. With these girls, it was the first time Sandra had ever tasted alcohol and smoked cigarettes. After a while, she realizes that they were not the right crowd for her and that’s when she made friends with other people at school, who are still her close friends today. The new group of friends encouraged her to join clubs, and school programs that they all went to as friends and this helped Sandra to gain many scholarships to the University. Many adolescents have fallen victim to pressure that has destroyed their lives. In Sandra’s case, she quickly realizes that is not what she wants for herself. At the end of the day, almost all of us had some experience with peer pressure.
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In School, there are two main types of groups that adolescence falls into, cliques and crowds. Cliques are a group of friends who know each other well and consist of 2-12 people. On the other hand, a crowd is a larger group of people that may not be friends. In high school Sandra did have a clique, she had a small group of friends of about 4 people. They would do homework together, hang out at the mall, go to each other’s houses for a sleepover, and talk about everything with each other. Now that Sandra moved away, she still has those same groups of friends, but she also has a new group of friends at the University with whom she spends most of her time. So, adolescents can belong to more than one clique at the same time.
Most time adolescents become much closer with their peers, and find groups that they can fit into and feel like they belong. Adolescents want to be understood, but most time they get that from their peers and not their parents. In Sandra’s case, she feels more comfortable talking about anything with her friends because she feels that they understand her better and believe that her parent forgets about the time difference. Sandra stated that her parents’ minds are still in the past, and they don’t understand some of today's dilemmas that teens face.
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