The development of peer group in adolescence is marked by several distinct stages. Each of these stages serves to regulate and organize the adolescent’s social development and particularly their heterosexual relationship.
Pre-crowd Stage:- Includes the isolated sexual peer groups of late childhood.
There is little interaction between groups and almost no organized meetings.
Interactional learning occurs primarily within the group, they don’t attend parties.
Their leisure time activities may involve talking, playing or just hanging around with a small group of same sex friends.
The beginning of the crowd: include unisexual peer groups and the beginning of group to group heterosexual interactions.
Boys and girls may attend the same party, but most of the time they spend with same sex peers. They may be relatively uncomfortable and uncertain about relating to members of opposite sex. The mixed sex social events provide opportunities for them to learn / know about the opposite sex, operating from the secure base of the same sex peer groups.
The crowd in transition:
Marks the beginning of the hetero sexual cliques, the upper status members of the unisexual cliques begin to form an emergent hetero sexual grouping. These emergent member and group members still maintain membership in their unisexual groups.
The fully developed crowd:
Marked by heterosexual cliques in close association, soon the crowd comprises almost entirely heterosexual cliques.In fact one of the most frequent reasons for peer unpopularity / rejection is an adolescents inability to successfully negotiate the transition from same sex activities to heterosexual interests.
Beginning of crowd disintegration:- With graduation from college the ‘glue’ that held the heterosexual cliques together is no longer present and entrance into marriage takes place.
Early adolescents (ages 10-14): Differences in relationships between friends and non-friends intensify during early adolescence. Many young adolescents reveal their weakness and vulnerabilities to close friends, even as they may try to maintain a demeanor of competence and self-confidence in front of most other age-mates. They begin to confront feelings of possessiveness and jealousy about friends, and after age 11 the number of close friends slowly declines many friendship pairs gradually converge into larger groups, such as cliques.
Late adolescence (ages 14-18): Older adolescents tend to be quite selective in their choice friends. They tend to nurture relationships with a few friends that they keep some time, throughout their lives, and having such friendships enhances their self-esteem. Many friendships in late adolescence are enriched with self-disclosure, intimacy, and loyalty. Older teenagers frequently turn to friends for emotional support in times of trouble or confusion, and they are likely to engage in lengthy discussions about personal problems and possible solutions. In the process, they often discover that they aren’t as unique as they once thought. For such reasons, friendships become especially important during the teenage years.
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