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James Coleman found that ‘leading crowds’ in high schools were similarly composed.
- There was a relatively large emphasis on academics / brilliant students.
- Sports abilities for boys and success in social relationships for girls were the most important characteristics of membership in the leading crowd.
- The social structure of peer group is composed of – cliques and crowds.
- The clique, a small group of 2-4 friends, gives the adolescent the chance to establish some degree of companionship, security and acceptance before moving into the larger social scene / crowd.
- The most important factor that influences the formation of cliques is similarity, age, socio economic status, race, gender and interests.
- Crowd is the larger unit with many friends.
- Activities of clique occur on weekdays, while crowd are on weekends.
- In cliques, children meet informally during school and after school, while in crowds, activities are more formally organized.
- The predominant activity of clique is conversation and its function is to organize, publicize and evaluate crowd activities.
- Social groups become a particularly prominent feature of children’s social worlds once they reach puberty. During the adolescent years; cliques, subcultures and gangs.
Cliques: These are moderately stable friendship groups of perhaps 3 to 10 individuals, and such groups provide the setting for most voluntary social interactions. Bound-arises tend to be fairly rigid and exclusive. Membership in various cliques affects social status and dominance with peers. In early adolescence, cliques affects are usually comprised of a single sex; in later adolescence, cross-sex cliques become increasingly common. The emergence of cliques in early adolescence heightens young people’s concerns about acceptance and popularity.
A group that resists a powerful dominant culture by adopting a significantly different way of life. They defined by common values, beliefs and behavior patterns. Adolescents are more likely to affiliate with subcultures when they feel alienated from the dominant culture. They also tend to develop subcultures when they are pessimistic or apathetic about their future.
Gangs: A gang is a cohesive social group characterized by initiations rites, distinctive colors and symbols, ownership of a specific territory and feuds with one or more rival groups have well-defined dominance hierarchies, with specific roles defined for each member. Typically, they are governed by strict rules for behavior, with stiff penalties for breaking them.
Adolescents affiliate with gangs for a variety of reasons. To demonstrate their loyalty to their family friends or neighborhood for the status and prestige that gang membership brings which have poor academic records and see the gang as an alternative arena in which they might be successful and gain recognition for their accomplishments. Many members of gangs had troubled relationships with their families or they have been consistently rejected by peers and so they turn to street gangs to get the emotional support they can find nowhere else.
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Participants