Peer Relationships in Adolescence

For decades, scholars have pointed to peer relationships as one of the most important features of adolescence. Peers have been alternately blamed for some of the more problematic aspects of adolescent functioning and praised for contributing to adolescent health and well being. Recently, researchers have pushed the study of peer relations in exciting new directions, using more sophisticated methodologies to explore understudied aspects of adolescent peer relationships and mechanisms of influence. In this chapter, we review the issues that investigators have pursued over the past 5 years, since the last edition of this Handbook , that pertain to adolescent peer relations. We consider how findings from these studies improve our understanding of the role that peers play in the lives of adolescents and how these studies chart a direction for future research in the area.