Article critique
Socialization with peers and others is the critical factor determining the individual’s growth and adjustment in each person’s life. Knowing peer dynamics, academic motivation, identity development, friendship quality, and mental health in youth and young adulthood is a critical knowledge gap in understanding human behavior and well-being. This article critique brings together findings from five articles addressing these topics to give the audience a thorough understanding of the complexities of socialization and peer relationships.
Peer Influences on Academic Motivation
Does Online-Formed Peer Relationship Affect Academic Motivation During Online Learning? Vania et al. (2022) draw attention to the extent that their schoolmates play in their desires and achievements in school. The research brings to light that factors such as peer relationships significantly play a key role in boosting students’ motivation in the classroom and highlighting peer relationships that have a positive impact as the key to creating a supportive atmosphere that boosts intrinsic motivation, engagement in learning tasks and improves academic performance in the end. On the other hand, competitive and stressful peer interactions will also negatively affect academic motivation, and consequently, the students will fail to achieve satisfactory outcomes. The study aims to comprehensively understand the role of peer mechanisms and then develop the interventions accordingly. These interventions should promote positive peer dynamics among students and stimulate their academic motivation, thus providing favorable school settings for them to achieve academic excellence.
The Association between Peer Victimization and Adjustment
The article Peer Victimization Trajectories at the Adolescent Transition: “Relationships of Adolescent Peer Victimization on the Adjustment from Peer Status Perspective by Sheppard et al. 2019, concentrates on presenting the connections between peer victimization and the adjustment levels of teenagers. Researchers find that bullying within the peer group is a significant predictor of a wide range of adverse health outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing problems, decreased self-esteem, and low academic achievement. Such victimization can lead to suffering from psychosocial disorders, which can affect the adaptation of the individual in both short and long-term periods. Peer victimization prevention and intervention programs should be given top priority in comprehensive intervention approaches since they are designed to address peer victimization, build healthy peer relationship norms, and finally promote positive adjustment outcomes in the teenage years.
Peer Influences on Emerging Adults’ Identity Development
Diverse adolescents’ transcendent thinking predicts young adult psychosocial outcomes via brain network development by Gotlieb et al., 2024 deepens our understanding of how peers shape identity formation as teenagers move on to adulthood. The research found that the interactions between peers have a major effect on the personal identity of a student and the level of student involvement in personal investing. Peers can act as either one’s social comparisons or information sources in shaping the individual’s identity. Empowering friendly relationships in which peers are unreserved in their affirmation, encouragement, and support provides an anchor for adolescents to build healthy self-identity. While the outgoing and positive side of the peer group effect promotes this growth, the negative peer influences, on the other hand, present major roadblocks. The fact that peer interactions and identity ramifications are the foremost contributors to positive psychosocial development in early adulthood should be clearly understood.
Friendship Quality and Adolescent Adjustment
The meta-analytic review titled Relations of Friendship Experiences with depressive symptoms and Loneliness in Childhood and Adolescence by Schwartz-Mette et al. (2020) underlines the considerable influence of friendship experiences on the mental health of children and adolescents. Friendship is determined to be the main factor that helps make a successful adjustment during childhood and adolescence. Additionally, good adjustment in university settings is linked to emotional well-being, social competence, and academic achievements. Healthy and genuine trust, tenderness, and compassion between friendships act as buffers against all sorts of precision and crises during teen days. Conversely, friendships based on a high level of confrontation or lack of support in the assimilation process cause those outcomes to worsen. The study highlights the need to generate healthy peer relations through social skills training and peer support networks. Implementing support mechanisms that give young people tools to overcome challenges and build resilience effectively can advance the mental health of peer relations.
Peer Relationships and Mental Health in Early Adolescence
The study presented in the article Associations Between Mother-Adolescent and Father-Adolescent Relationships and Young Adult Health by Ford et al. (2023) unveils an integrated feature whereby peer relations and mental health are considered in the lives of adolescents. Such findings can be interpreted as bidirectional relations between mental health and peers when, in general, mental health issues and emotional balance are supported by close friends in return, and vice versa. Interaction with a peer network provides the necessary emotional confirmation, companionship, and tools for coping, which helps lower stress levels and result in positive mental health outcomes. However, social isolation, peer rejection, or bullying can negatively affect mental health, making symptoms of depression, anxiety, and loneliness worse. The interventions that are designed to be effective in promoting positive peer relations and addressing mental health issues are the key to the premise of a holistic approach to the upbringing of early adolescents, which puts forward the essence of the need to have both social and emotional well-being in this developmental stage.
Conclusion
The combination of these research papers suggests that the multiple socialization and peer relations factors bring different aspects of human development and adjustment. A positive peer atmosphere with mutual backing, tolerance, and cooperation leads to good results in academic personality development, quality of friends, and mental health. In contrast, adverse peer relations, including victimization by peers, peer pressure, or conflicts, may lead to a potential disability of any personality and individual’s adaptation. Considering the multi-faceted nature of peer influence is crucial in designing effective interventions and encouraging beneficial peer relationships in all ages.
References
Gotlieb, R. J., Yang, X. F., & Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2024). Diverse adolescents’ transcendent thinking predicts young adult psychosocial outcomes via brain network development. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 6254. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-56800-0
Vania, I. G., Yudiana, W., & Susanto, H. (2022). Does online-formed peer relationships affect academic motivation during online learning? Journal of Educational, Health and Community Psychology, 11(1), 72. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ignasia-Geralda-Vania/publication/359066872_Does_Online-Formed_Peer_Relationship_Affect_Academic_Motivation_During_Online_Learning/links/622892913c53d31ba4b470d8/Does-Online-Formed-Peer-Relationship-Affect-Academic-Motivation-During-Online-Learning.pdf?origin=journalDetail&_tp=eyJwYWdlIjoiam91cm5hbERldGFpbCJ9
Schwartz-Mette, R. A., Shankman, J., Dueweke, A. R., Borowski, S., & Rose, A. J. (2020). Relations of friendship experiences with depressive symptoms and loneliness in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 146(8), 664. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-31786-001
Ford, C. A., Pool, A. C., Kahn, N. F., Jaccard, J., & Halpern, C. T. (2023). Associations between mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships and young adult health. JAMA Network open, 6(3), e233944-e233944.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2802677
Sheppard, C. S., Giletta, M., & Prinstein, M. J. (2019). Peer victimization trajectories at the adolescent transition: Associations among chronic victimization, peer-reported status, and adjustment. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 48(2), 218-227.https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1261713
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