Adolescent clique

Adolescent cliques are cliques that develop amongst adolescents. In the social sciences, the word "clique" is used to describe a large group of 6 to 12 "who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting". Cliques are distinguished from "crowds" in that their members socially interact with one another more than the typical crowd (e.g. hang out together, go shopping, play sports etc.). Crowds, on the other hand, are defined by reputation. Although the word 'clique' or 'cliquey' is often used in day-to-day conversation to describe relational aggression or snarky, gossipy behaviors of groups of socially dominant teenage girls, that is not always accurate. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and in educational settings, they can exist in all age groups and settings.

Definition

As children enter adolescence, cultural, biological and cognitive changes cause variation in their daily lives. Adolescents spend far less time with their parents and begin participating in both structured and unstructured peer activities. Without the direct presence of their parents or other adults, their peer network begins to become the primary context for most socialization and activity. There was an explanation given by B. Bradford Brown on the psychological development stages in adolescents, and one of the stages He named "to fit in" stage, which means to find secure affiliations and obtain approval from peers. He said that adolescents spend a lot more time with their peers than younger children, and are more influence by the peer group than younger children. These social "cliques" fundamentally influence adolescent life and development. Perhaps because they are perceived as an external threat to parental authority, undesired changes in adolescent behavior are often attributed to cliques. In these situations, cliques are described as "social grouping[s] of persons that exhibit a great deal of peer pressure on its members and is exclusive, based on superficial differences". A more neutral and scientific definition of clique is "a grouping of persons who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting".

Similar cliques may re-emerge in adulthood in specific contexts, characterized by large, undifferentiated, anonymous crowds. Overall, cliques are a transitory social phase. In general, cliques first form in early adolescence with strict gender segregation, but by middle adolescence, some mixed-gender activities within the peer crowds foster close, cross-sex friendships which begin to restructure the clique. During late adolescence, the organized clique structure typically dissolves into associated sets of couples, which then remain the primary social unit into and throughout adulthood. Males were also more likely to consider actively exclusive behavior unethical, as were younger adolescents. Similarly, although adolescents tend to associate with others of the same ethnicity and socioeconomic status, clique membership is equally common across ethnicity and economic background. The characteristics of the distinct cliques within each demographic group also vary equally, although members of cliques in one crowd or demographic group may not perceive all of the distinctions in others (see also crowds).

Forms of association

A number of recent studies confirm that regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, adolescents tend to fall into one of three categories: group members, liaisons, and isolates. The objective cliques themselves remain surprisingly stable as well. On average, cliques lose around one third of their members over a given school year, but new members with similar characteristics tend to replace the deserters, maintaining the general identity of the clique.

Regardless of popularity type, highly popular individuals influence local norms and behaviors in similar ways: "adolescents are easily swayed by the opinions of high-status peers to endorse activities they might otherwise reject and to run the other way from activities endorsed by low-status peers, even if they secretly enjoy them". Among the most powerful determinants of clique membership are orientation toward school, orientation toward teen culture, and involvement in antisocial behavior. A study of 78 high schools found that even controlling for past achievement, the GPAs of an individual's close friends reliably help predict grades; in fact "of all the characteristics of friends that influence adolescents' behavior, their friends' school performance has the greatest impact, not only on their own academic achievement, but also on their involvement in problem behavior and drug use." Participation in subcultures can also reinforce belonging. In many cases, clique members can be easily identified based on dress alone.

Antisocial activity

Research does not support the common belief that troubled adolescents have few or no friends. This general self-sorting trend applies in different ways to specific kinds of antisocial behavior. A few of the most studied are substance use, aggression, and depressive symptoms.

Substance use

Similarity in substance use is one of the most powerful factors in clique development and lasting membership, even serving as the earliest predictor of cross-gender friendships and the most common basis for multi-ethnic cliques.

Cliques typically fall into one of four categories and clique membership reliably predicts individual behavior.

High Functioning cliques consisted of "a network of high-achieving friends who were involved in school-based extracurricular activities and who reported low use of alcohol and few symptoms of depression."
Maladjusted cliques "showed the opposite pattern": uninvolved in school performance and organized activities, used alcohol frequently and to excess, and reported multiple symptoms of depression.
Disengaged cliques did not encourage engagement "in much of anything, including drinking."
Engaged cliques consisted of friends who "engaged in school, achieved decent grades, and neither abstained from nor abused alcohol."

Members of High Functioning and Engaged cliques demonstrated the best long-term outcomes, whereas Maladjusted clique membership predicted low achievement, chronic substance abuse, and confrontation with authorities and Disengaged clique members and others who abstained completely typically exhibited abnormally high anxiety and inhibition. One study on the emergence of depression in adolescence found that even controlling for the effects of age and pubertal development, gender predicted several small but significant differences: (a) depressive symptoms and negative peer relations predicted increasing levels of reassurance-seeking in female subjects; (b) initial levels of reassurance-seeking predicted deteriorating friendship quality among girls and initial levels of depressive symptoms, which were higher among girls, predicted low friendship stability among all subjects, and (c) "reassurance-seeking combined with poor peer experiences predicted increases in girls' depressive symptoms."

Gender

Gender is perhaps the strongest determinant of clique composition in very early puberty. During childhood and early adolescence social segregation between is almost absolute. However, unlike other factors, gender division is temporary.

Socioeconomic status

Another, less advantageous, powerful determinant of clique formation is socioeconomic class. This trend was first published in the famous "Elmtown's Youth Study", which found that "almost never did adolescents from one social class associate with students from a class that was two ranks higher or lower". resulting in uneven distribution between tracks in the majority of American high schools. Researchers suggest that because close friends in adolescence "usually have similar attitudes toward school, similar educational aspirations, and similar school achievement levels", early tracking may both decrease exposure to peers of other racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and decrease perceived similarity with the majority of those peers was to discover the different emotional and social effects that members of the same cliques share. For their study they divided the 473 fourth and fifth graders into five groups, which were: competent, tough, average, withdrawn, and incompetent/aggressive. The researchers did this by having students rate their classmates on several characteristics; bright, fun, bully, withdrawn, athletic, prosocial, reactive aggression. They then measured differences among groups by asking children questions regarding peers social status and behavioral characteristics. For example, they asked participants to nominate up to three participating classmates who "tries to get what he or she wants by hitting, shoving, pushing or threatening others". In addition, they asked children questions about themselves that regarded to levels of loneliness and children's social dissatisfaction.

The researcher's discovered differences in emotional well-being and social satisfaction between different types of clique groups. They found that competent and average groups showed positive characteristics such as good interpersonal skills, whereas withdrawn, incompetent/aggressive and tough cliques lacked emotional well-being and social satisfaction. Another discovery was that social status levels did not distinguish average, competent and tough cliques from one another. Therefore, if an individual is in one of these three groups they are no more likely to have a high social status than a low social status. Their conclusion to these findings was that even when taking into account individuals social status level, the type of clique people are in has a significant effect on their social and emotional characteristics.

Change and stability in childhood

A recent study done by Witvliet, Van Lier, Cuijpers and Koot shows the differences in behavioral characteristics between clique members and non-clique members in early elementary school, the stability of clique membership and whether the differences in these characteristics are gender oriented. Three hundred first-grade students (151 boys, 149 girls) from eleven different elementary schools in the Netherlands participated. The children were examined by being asked to determine their best friends. This friendship was considered valid if the elected friendship was reciprocated by the other child. The child was considered to be in a clique when the following criteria were met 1) a clique consisted of at least three children 2) each child had to have more connections with members than non-members and 3) a link had to occur between all members of clique. Children were then rated by their peers to determine who was liked the most versus who was liked the least. The children were also asked to determine behavioural characteristics of participants and who best fit the description of characteristics such as aggressive, anxious, etc. The peer study was followed through every spring and children were given a small reward for their involvement. These results were then used to compare between clique members and non-clique members. These results were also used to discuss the children's characteristics while also separating based on gender. In first grade, 29 cliques were found with an average of 5.3 members. In second grade 25 cliques were found with an average of 6.2 members. This study suggests that clique members tend to be more adjusted and that gender may have some form of influence on the results. This study showed that isolated girls would have more behavioural problems than isolated boys.

Effect of cliques on the development of psychopathology in children

Researches have often conducted studies to determine whether membership to a clique produces positive or negative development. In one 4-year study of 451 children from age nine to twelve, Miranda Witvliet along with Pol A. C. van Lier, Mara Brendgen, Hans M. Koot, and Frank Vitaro examined longitudinal associations between clique membership status and internalizing and externalizing problems during late childhood. In this quasi-experiment the researchers aimed to discover if clique membership status was linked to increases in children's psychopathology. Children from five different elementary schools in northwestern Quebec, Canada were the participants of this particular study. In the study, clique membership status was identified through social network analysis, and peer nominations were used to assess internalizing and externalizing problems. The study used the program Kliquefinder to identify clique membership status through social network analysis. Through use of behavioural descriptions on the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI), peer nominations of externalizing and internalizing behaviors were obtained.

Through this study, Witvliet, van Lier, Brendgen, Koot, and Vitaro noted that externalizing problems increased among clique members. They found that clique members compared with isolated children showed, on average, an increase in externalizing problems across that same period. While no sex differences were found in the link between clique membership status and internalizing problems, the association found between clique membership and an increase in externalizing problems was specific to boys only. The researchers claimed that these results support the hypothesis that clique membership protects children against developing internalizing problems.

Decline of cliques

During middle adolescence, the social norms that once enforced sex cleavage shift to encourage mixed-sex socialization. Single-sex cliques begin to seek out the company of opposite-sex cliques, although at first almost all direct interaction remains within the individual cliques despite the presence of the other clique(s). Gradually, intersex relationships and mixed sex cliques develop, closely followed by the first romantic relationships, which typically appear among early-pubertal, high-status, more physically developed adolescents. Over the course of late adolescence romantic relationships replace clique hierarchies as the most potent determinants of social status and networks of dating couples eventually replace more rigidly structured cliques. interventions with parents have yielded encouraging results.