Problems at home, peer networks at school, and the social integration of adolescents

Citation

Crosnoe, Robert; Skalamera, Julie; & Cheadle, Jacob E. (2015). Problems at home, peer networks at school, and the social integration of adolescents. Together Through Time: Conference on Social Networks and the Life Course. Pennsylvania State University.

Abstract

Research and theory in sociology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience suggests that the kinds of relationships that adolescents have at home will matter to the social experiences that they have in high school. To explore these potential connections between two key contexts of adolescent life, we applied a several statistical techniques to network and survey data from 16 high schools in a nationally representative sample of adolescents. In general, adolescents who had negative relationships with their parents were less likely to feel socially integrated with peers at school. This general association did not vary by whether adolescents’ network positions indicated that they were popular but was more pronounced among adolescents with high sociability ratings (i.e., adolescents who nominated multiple peers as their friends). Some evidence also suggested that homophilous relationships between adolescents who each had negative relationships were somewhat durable over time, although this durability appeared to be more about the larger structure of the school-wide peer networks that pushed homophilous adolescents together and less about homophily itself. Overall, the results indicate that relationships with parents were not consistently implicated in peer dynamics at school, but, when relationships in the home and school were connected, they often pointed to social risks for adolescents with problems at home.

URL

http://sites.psu.edu/c2ls/wp-content/uploads/sites/7536/2015/06/CrosnoePSUpaper051915.pdf

Reference Type

Conference proceeding

Book Title

Together Through Time: Conference on Social Networks and the Life Course

Author(s)

Crosnoe, Robert
Skalamera, Julie
Cheadle, Jacob E.

Year Published

2015

City of Publication

Pennsylvania State University

Reference ID

6932