Relationships with peers

Since most theories of social and personal development make the main emphasis on child-parent relations, until recently most psychologists considered the relationship with peers much less significant. But now this view is changing, as it becomes obvious that relations with peers play a unique and important role in the development of the child

By the age of 14-15 we start to notice two or more children playing together with toys, sometimes interacting, but more often just next to each other with different toys. This pattern Mildred Parten described as a parallel game. Children of this age show interest in another child, make sounds and look at each other.

During the preschool period, the first signs of friendship and peer preferences appear. Some children already at 18 months prefer comrades in the game; By 3 or 4 years more than half of the children have at least one mutual friendly relationship. Moreover, more of these friendships last at least 6 months, and many even longer.

Shared gaming interests form the basis of relationships between school-age children, as well as in pre-school children. Moreover, children of this age view gaming groups in terms of overall activity, and not in terms of general attitudes or values

In the study, Susan Bryan and Karen Birman, children attending grades 5, 8 and 11 were asked to talk about different groups of children who spend time together in school, and then say, based on what, according to their opinion, such "groups" are formed. For fifth-graders, the only and the best criterion of the "group" is joint activity. For the eighth graders, the common views and interests come first.

For teenagers of middle age is characterized by the desire to become members of some group or company that causes their admiration. Teenagers achieve the recognition of the group, adapting to it, gaining success in something, participating in various school activities, developing in themselves the qualities that others like, and mastering the skills of communication

In its psychosocial development, a person passes through three phases: the autosocial, the homosocial, and the heterosocial. One of the most important tasks is to successfully pass the heterosocial stage and find friends of both sexes.

As adolescents grow older, their relationships with friends become more open, and between girls there is closer emotional contact than between boys