Week 9

Peer Groups

Peer groups are significant socializers, contributing beyond the influence of family and school because

They satisfy certain belonging needs

They are often preferred to other socializing agents

They influence not only social development but cognitive and psychological development as well.

Adding Up the Assets

Another kind of asset that will help your children succeed

The wealth of happy memories

The wealth of family time

The wealth of caring relationships

The wealth of opportunities to serve

These assets...

Give children strength during difficult times

Contribute to their emotional health and well-being

Help children grow

40 Developmental Assets

20 External Assets

Things that make up a positive, healthy environment

Supportive family

Living in a caring neighborhood

Attending a supportive school

Feeling safe in the surroundings

Having appropriate rules and consequences

Spending time at home, in extracurricular activities and at church

20 Internal Assets

The values, skills, and beliefs that children hold. The assets that make up a child's strength of character.

Loving to read and learn new things

Caring about others and looking for ways to help

Can include a child's strength to stand up for their beliefs or say "no" to negative peer pressure.

Based on knowing who you are and what you stand for

Investing in your Child's Emotional Assets

Support

Commitment to learning

Empowerment

Positive values

Boundaries and Expectations

Social competencies

Constructive use of time

Positive identity

Cliques, Crowds, and Conformity

Over the course of adolescence, changes in peer, group structures take place with same-sex cliques

All high schools have cliques and crowds, although the labels that they use may differ

A Cass Divided

They let a few people do their fighting for them and they stand back and if this person's going to win, then they'll get on this side.

We see a few people who are making a lot of noise and the rest of the people sitting back waiting to see what they're going to do.

You don't have to be black or Jewish or Mexican or anything else to have felt discrimination in your life, and as you become an adult, you learn to deal with those feelings within yourself and you learn to handle those.

How society could be if we really believed all this stuff that we preach, if we really acted that way

They found out how to hurt one another and they found out how it feels to be hurt in that way and they refuse to hurt one another in that way again.