Peer Contagion in Child and Adolescent Social and Emotional Development

By Thomas J. Dishion, Jessica M. Tipsord. Annual Review of Psychology, 2011

847 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this article, we examine the construct of peer contagion in childhood and adolescence and review studies of child and adolescent development that have identified peer contagion influences. Evidence suggests that children's interactions with peers are tied to increases in aggression in early and middle childhood and amplification of problem behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, and violence in early to late adolescence. Deviancy training is one mechanism that accounts for peer contagion effects on problem behaviors from age 5 through adolescence. In addition, we discuss peer contagion relevant to depression in adolescence, and corumination as an interactive process that may account for these effects. Social network analyses suggest that peer contagion underlies the influence of friendship on obesity, unhealthy body images, and expectations. Literature is reviewed that suggests how peer contagion effects can undermine the goals of public education from elementary school through college and impair the goals of juvenile corrections systems. In particular, programs that “select” adolescents at risk for aggregated preventive interventions are particularly vulnerable to peer contagion effects. It appears that a history of peer rejection is a vulnerability factor for influence by peers, and adult monitoring, supervision, positive parenting, structure, and self-regulation serve as protective factors.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/446f1451aa594b13bf9b785533975f92608f2329

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing? (2014, background): “Further, interventions that segregate adolescents engaging in problem behaviors into groups can actually be harmful (Dishion & Tipsord 2011, Dishion et al. 2012, Ellis et al. 2012).”
Beyond Screen Time: Identity Development in the Digital Age (2020, background): “After the early-adolescence stage of conformity (e.g. Deutsch & Gerard, 1955; Dishion & Snyder, 2016; Dishion & Tipsord, 2011; Festinger, 1950), mid-adolescence ushers in a period that prioritizes the need for personal agency.”
Popularity as an organizing factor of preadolescent friendship networks: Beyond prosocial and aggressive behavior. (2013, background): “Affiliation with aggressive peers is associated with increases in one’s own level of aggression (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011; Espelage, Holt, & Henkel, 2003; Sijtsema et al., 2010), and friendship with prosocial peers is associated with increases in one’s prosocial behavior (Barry & Wentzel, 2006;…”
Network Effects and Social Inequality (2012, background): “(For a review, see Dishion & Tipsord 2011.”
Drivers of human development: How relationships and context shape learning and development1 (2020, background): “Peer effects can best be understood transactionally (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011; Hicks et al., 2014).”
Adolescence as a Sensitive Period of Brain Development. (2015, positive): “When with peers, adolescents are more likely to engage in risky behaviours such as drug use [57].”
Transformations in adolescent peer networks (2011, background): “Potential influence mechanisms on externalizing problem behavior may involve encouragement, mutual participation, and attention (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011).”
The Role of Friends and Peers in Adolescent Body Dissatisfaction: A Review and Critique of 15 Years of Research (2014, background): “Despite recent calls for researchers to focus additional attention in this area (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011; Jones, 2004; Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Lee, 2004), there has been no comprehensive review of recent research that has addressed what particular aspects of friend and peer relationships increase or…”