Question

What role do peer groups serve in the socialization of school-age children?

Answer 1

Ans) Role of peer groups in the socialization of school age children:

- Peer contacts represent a second world for children-- a world of equal status interactions that is very different from the non egalitarian environment of the home. However, mixed-age peer interactions are also crucially important socialization contexts that have benefits for both younger and older peer associates.

- Contacts with peers increase dramatically with age, and during the preschool or early elementary school years, children are spending at least as much of their leisure time with peers as with adults. The "peer group" consists mainly of same-sex associates of somewhat different ages.

- Research with mother-only and peer-only monkeys and young children indicates that peer contacts are important for the development of competent and adaptive patterns of social behavior.

- Children who fail to establish and maintain adequate relations with their peers will run the risk of experiencing any number of serious adjustment problems later in life.

- In fact, Judith Harris proposed that peers are more important agents of socializing than adults.