The Importance of Peers: Making the Most of Peer Relationships in Childhood and Adolescence

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Background

Few individuals in the lives of children and adolescents matter more than peers. With whom children interact -- and the frequency, nature, and quality of those interactions -- shape children’s developmental experiences. For instance, relationships with peers who are different from oneself (e.g., other-gender peers) provide developmental opportunities that are unique from those obtained in the context of relationships with similar peers (e.g., same-gender peers). Friendships with peers who display certain behaviors (e.g., prosocial behavior, aggressive behavior) provide an opportunity for socializing those behaviors. Being liked and having friends (or not) and being disliked and having enemies (or not) also shapes outcomes. Indicators of well-being and life success (e.g., social, emotional, behavioral, physical, academic, economic) can be linked contemporaneously and longitudinally to the nature and quality of children’s and adolescents’ peer experiences.

From a developmental perspective, relationships with peers in childhood and adolescence provide a foundation upon which adult interpersonal relationships are built. As the world faces significant challenges to overcome -- challenges that require effective interaction and collaboration among many individuals and groups -- it is imperative that peer relationships research contribute. Research is needed to support young people in developing the social skills they will need as adults to meet the world’s challenges.

The goal of this Research Topic is to advance and share knowledge about peers in childhood and adolescence. This collection of articles is intended to provide a platform for discussing peers and their effects. It is also intended to contribute to practical applications by examining factors that contribute to positive and adaptive peer experiences (or discourage negative and maladaptive ones).

To meet these goals, we intend to bring together innovative, high quality research studies that explore peer relationships in childhood or adolescence, their contemporaneous or longitudinal effects, and the factors that maximize positive peer experiences and minimize negative ones. Original empirical studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses are welcome. Studies that reflect both basic science and applied approaches are encouraged as are studies from any discipline and studies that utilize quantitative methods and mixed-methods. Relevant research on peer relationships might come from individual perspectives, dyadic perspectives, or group perspectives and analytic approaches that can be used to quantitatively evaluate data at any of these levels are appropriate (including, for example, dyadic data analyses and social network analyses). Studies that focus on diverse samples are encouraged.

Aspects of peer relationships that are appropriate for this Research Topic include, but are not limited to:

• Social behaviors, such as aggression or prosocial
• Social skills, such as interpersonal problem solving skills or communication skills
• Inclusion and liking or exclusion and disliking
• Social status
• Friendships, antipathies, and aggressor-victim relationships
• Peer selection (e.g., who is in relation with whom)
• Peer socialization

Keywords: Peers, Peer relationships, Peer Interactions, Children, Adolescents, Social behaviors, Social skills, Social status, Intervention

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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