Sociology in Education: Peer Influence Article Summary & Reflection

This essay delves into sociology within the context of education, primarily focusing on peer influence and social mobility. It includes a summary of an article by De Guzman (2007) which highlights the importance of peer relationships during adolescence, emphasizing their role in identity exploration and social skill development, while also acknowledging potential negative influences. The essay also addresses the author's learning and critical analysis of the article. Furthermore, it includes a personal reflection in the form of a letter discussing the impact of education on social mobility, highlighting its role in bridging gender gaps and improving life opportunities. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of education in individual success and societal advancement, and Desklib provides similar resources for students.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY IN EDUCATION
Sociology in Education
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
Part A
Read the article “Friendships, Peer Influence, and Peer Pressure During the Teen Years”
by Maria T. T. de Guzman and summarize.
Summary –
The author De Guzman (2007) in his article ‘Friendship, Peer Influence and Peer
Pressure during the Teen Years’ illustrated the importance of the aspect of friendship in the
adolescent or the teen years. The author highlights the notion that the proper understanding of the
nature of the peer influence helps in the support of the youth while they enter and follow the path
towards the close friendship that denotes the hallmark of adolescence. The article states the fact
that during the time of the adolescence, peer plays a very essential role in the life of the children
and the adolescence even in the case the family continues to be the significant one. The article
illustrates how in general sense, peer friendship tends to offer the youth with various positive
chances or opportunities despite of the fact encircling the negative connotations that peer
relations tends to have. Adolescence is the time period where the concept of peers plays an
important role in the lives of the youth.
The author in the article highlighted friendship as one of the essential component of the
development and the notion of peer pressure which provide safe venues for the youth for giving
them the opportunity to explore their identities. This furthermore helps the youth to feel accepted
towards the development of sense of belongingness. The article furthermore sheds light on the
positive aspect of friendship allowing the youth to foster and practice the social skills that are
necessary for the future success. The author highlighted on the positive factors involved with the
peer relations and friendship and how these are actually essential towards a healthy development
for the youth of the current generation for their growth in healthy adults. The aim of the author in
his article is to objectify the positive factors of peer relation apart from all the negative influence
of peers which are over emphasized and have the potential towards the encouragement of the
problematic behaviors.
The article claims how much can be done for helping the teenagers to experience peer
group and family as some of the mutually constructive environments. The article concluded with
the fact that the factors such as the communities, church, school and other group of the youth

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should help in the development of positive peer relationships and also help in deflecting the
negative peer pressure experiences among and influences on the lives of the children in the
current age.
The basis on which the author of the article stated above made her claims is connected to
the concept of friendship, peer pressure and experiences in the teen ages, in one of the noted
article by Tomé et al. (2012) that explains the proposed structure of an explanatory model aiming
to study the peer group and the influence of the families on the behavior of the adolescence. The
authors of this literature used a group of adolescents as the sample to study health behavior
among the school aged children. The literature illustrates that the peer and the connection of
friendship have a direct impact in the risk behaviors of the adolescents. The negative connection
and influence of the peer groups is more connected towards the involvement in the behavior of
the risks while the positive influence is more connected with the protective nature of the
individual.
The basis and the comment made by De Guzman (2007) in his article objectified the
positive factors of the friendship and how the peer experience is connected to protective
behaviors of the teenagers in the current generation. The author furthermore highlighted the
importance of the peer experience in the lives of the teenagers highlights the fact that the
influence of the peer is more complex that the stereotypes of the negative influence from friends.
The author stated how parents in the current generation worry about their teens that they might
fall under the negative influence and reject the values and the beliefs of the families.
The author of the article furthermore highlighted some of the major facts regarding the
relationship of teen and parent during the adolescent period which includes re-negotiation of the
relationship among parents and teens, influencing factors by the parenthood, the continuous
attempt by the parent to socialize their children resulting in increasing level of conflicts and
disagreements among the parents and the adolescent group of teenagers. Some of the note
worthy fact that the author of this article highlighted in his article includes group friendships and
multiple layers, dynamic peer friendships, similarity index among the peers and the healthy
venue for the positive development of the youth.

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Questions
What was the most significant thing you learned from this article?
Answer - The most significant factor that has been learned and understood from the given article
is that the concept of friendship and peer relations are one of the most essential aspects in the
years of teenage among all the adolescent in this generation. Though there has been lots of
research regarding the negative effects of the peer influence and peer pressure on the live of the
teens, the author of the stated article shed light on the positive factors including the components
of the development of the adolescents. The most significant knowledge that can be understand
from the article regarding the facts of the peer relations and friendship is that the concept of
friendship that emerges during the adolescent age are generally tends to be more exclusive and
complex and these relation of friendship tends to develop the capacity for very close, deep and
intimate relations in this age. Furthermore the adult perception regarding the peer relation is
somewhat different. The article emphasized on the positive peer and the actions that can be
undertaken to help the teenagers to experience the peer groups and the families as the
components of the mutually constructive environment.
What was the most puzzling, problematic, controversial, unclear or troubling thing you found in
this article.
Answer - Though the author of the article projected the positive factors of friendship and peer
influence in the lives of the teenagers, the statement of the author regarding peer friendship being
a healthy venue option for the positive development of the youth is somewhat controversial and
puzzling. The author in the article stated that peer friendship can be the safest place for the
youths for the exploration of their identity and learn about the norms and the practices of the
society. This particular statement is controversial since researches have furthermore proved and
stated the negative influence of the peer pressure on the teenagers in the current decade and the
tremendous results that furthermore raise issues regarding the mental and the psychological
health of the teenagers. Besides this, the author stated in one of the effective strategies to

4SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
encourage diverse relationships. This is one of the troubling and problematic issues since
appreciation for gender , religious and socio economic status by the parents, teachers and the
community leaders is something which is a long debated issues in the world of major
discrimination. Besides this, the author stated the negative perception of the adults regarding the
peer relations and experiences. This is a confusing statement since mot all the parents and adults
have negative perception and worry about the negative peer influence to their children who
might reject the values, beliefs of the family under the influence of the friendship and peer
influence.

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References and Biblliography
Altonji, J. G., Cattan, S., & Ware, I. (2017). Identifying sibling influence on teenage substance
use. Journal of Human Resources, 52(1), 1-47.
De Guzman, M. (2007). Friendships, peer influence, and peer pressure during the teen years.
Giordano, P. C., Kaufman, A. M., Manning, W. D., & Longmore, M. A. (2015). Teen dating
violence: The influence of friendships and school context. Sociological focus, 48(2), 150-
171.
Tomé, G., de Matos, M. G., Simões, C., Camacho, I., & AlvesDiniz, J. (2012). How can peer
group influence the behavior of adolescents: Explanatory model. Global journal of health
science, 4(2), 26.

6SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
Part B
Write a letter to someone in your life (e.g. a friend, a family member or colleague) about
what you have learned in this course
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
City, State
Date:
Dear Hannah,
It has been very long since out last visit hence I thought to write to you to see how you are
doing these days. How are you these days. In your last letter you were asking me about the
course I am pursuing and the details of the course in this semester. I remember your interest
regarding the speciality of the course and why I am pursuing this. I want to explain what I have
learned from this course and how it has impacted on my personality and affected me in the
professional domain.
I believe that the education possess one of the most important role in the facilitation of
both the social and economic mobility. Education is basically the bridge among the gap in the
differences of the gender which has furthermore affected the intergenerational mobility (Towbin
et al., 2004). According to my personal insight in the domain of social mobility and education,
these are the basic fundamental measure for the equality in terms of the opportunity in the globe
where the outcomes are never equal. I see the concept of social mobility as learned in the course
module as the ladder for the improvement of our life that is falling below and work hard to
success in our lives. In the context it is evident that proper education is connected to accelerating
the social mobility. One of the factor that I really want to highlight in this context is how the
education in our society acts as the perfect mechanism for the social mobility. With both of the
functional value and a symbolic value, education furthermore facilitates the social mobility of

7SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
women in the world of prevailing gender biases and discrimination (Corsaro, 2017). I see the
context of social mobility in both employment and the educational opportunities as the
fundamental or the essential tool for the measurement of the equality of the opportunity related
to the economic opportunity or the chances I the life of every individual. I social mobility helps
in improving the virtue of talents, motivations and luck. According to the lessons I have learned I
came to know that the degree of social mobility varies widely and is highest in the country,
Norway and ranges the lowest in the United States. The lesson learned from the concept of social
mobility furthermore gave me with some of the more information regarding the context of head
start assets which children inherit from their parents that tends to significantly enhance the social
mobility of the upcoming generation. Through out the chapter I learned how education serves as
the most essential tool in the society to enhance success and growth of any individual. I
furthermore learned the fact that all of the societies in the globe have some sort and form the
social stratification that includes the group based kinship ties of people in the society, the factors
of gender, ethnicity, age, caste, religious and prestige. It is furthermore evident that the context
of the society is basically dependable on people in the groups from the time of birth (Kamarudin
et al., 2018). One of the major factor that I learned from the chapter that stood out among all of
other lessons is that our society comprises of achievements where individuals strive by their
entrepreneurial activities and their knowledge acquisitions to proceed upward in the ladder in the
society. Furthermore I learned how formal education is one of the essential and key factors for
the women in the current world to get employed where pathway to the higher education for them
has become accessible. Furthermore one of the important factor in this relation which I learned is
that intergenerational mobility is passed from the family to the children by their generation. I
furthermore learned how the sending of the government on the programs has some of the
obvious impact on the families of low income and their children. Overall from this chapter I
learned the importance of education and achievement which forms the basic ornament to survive
in the current society.
From the next chapter I learned some of the important factors that include the interaction
among the influence of the household towards the achievement of the academic performance of
the child. I furthermore noted some of the main reasons for the break down of the nuclear family
in the current decade together with the impact on the children for growing up in the single parent
families. I furthermore learned the impact of the television viewing over the children and effects

8SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
of the computer games in the lives of the children in the current scenario. You must be knowing
the stratification of families in our generation which comprises of nuclear, extended and single
parent family. I learned some of the important duties of parent for their child until their
adulthood. These includes physical security, physical development, the intellectual development,
the intellectual security, the emotional development and emotional security. According to my
personal opinion, in addition to the different demands and responsiveness one of the crucial style
of parenting is the psychological control of their children. This refers to the control of the
attempts that intrudes in the emotional and psychological development of their child (Markström,
2015). From the lessons in my course learned the differences among the authoritative and
authoritarian style of parenting. Though both the style of parenting expects the children to
behave and accept their demands as per their values, judgments and influencing factors affecting
the behavioral control. Some of the essential drawings from the chapter that I felt to highlight to
you via this letter are the evidences and observations depicting the facts like adolescents and the
children tends to rate themselves and their objectives in a more instrumental and social
competencies. Further the children whose parents tend to be uninvolved are some of the most
poor performers in all of the domains. Children belonging from authoritarian families generally
perform moderately well in the education and the physical activity sessions and the children from
the indulgent homes tends to involved in the behavioral issues and perform relatively less in their
educational background (Markström et al., 2015). Hannah, I can’t explain the level and the
degree of the references that is generally found in the competence evidences by each of the
group. I believe one of the largest differences that can be found is among the children’s with
unengaged parents and more involved parenthood nature. According to my personal insight there
lies a strong connection among the home school interactions that is furthermore an important
factor towards the fostering of the learning and the performance of the students. However I
believe Hannah that the quality of the home school interaction is far more essential and
important than the quantity in the prediction of the educational attainment. The success of the
schooling of a student is directly connected to the extent of the collaboration of the home and
school. I furthermore believe that engagement of the families who belong from certain diverse
backgrounds regarding the education of their children is essential for the development of
collaborative and trustworthy connection among the community of family and school. In this
particular context I think it is far more essential for the teachers and the partners to be the true

9SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
partners. Three of the most important facts according to my personal insights is the approach of
the partners, the equality attitudes and the trust worthy atmosphere (DuPaul et al., 2018).These
three conditions are essential for the sustaining of the quality family-school interactions. I
believe that the procedure for and the quality of the interactions tends to matter for the support of
the progress in the learning from perspective of the systems. I furthermore think that paying
attention to the process of the engagement of family school is an important factor since it
provides essential support for the improvement of the education of the students. In the context of
the other home school interactions, I believe there lies three major categories of the home
environment that tends to affect the academic success or the failure of the student. This includes
average families, co-operative to school families and the antagonistic to school families
(Goldthorpe, 2014). One of the major stands out point in the chapter which I want to highlight to
you my friend is the effects of the media on the lives of the children. We are all at this hi-
technology digital age sitting with our mobiles and laptops through out the day for the
enhancement of media of communication or the mass media. I feel the impact of the television
on the children is proportionately higher among the children among the age group of 4 and 5
months since they enjoy the colored characters in the television. I feel some of the most effective
impacts of television on the children are significant increase in the aggressiveness among the
children behavior and physical actions, increased time for media and less time for the sports and
the activities related to the community. In this particular context I feel that the impact of the
social media is not only affecting the behavior, the values and the nature of the students but also
making them mentally passive. Furthermore I feel the effects result in a drop of IQ score among
the students. Hannah, we being the individuals from the modern era can understand and agree to
the fact that excessive view of the television is generally a negative factor affecting the children.
Apart from all other negative impacts related to the viewing of the television, one of the factors
that seldom gets noticed; my friend is the stereotyping in the television industry. The cartoon
channels in the industry generally targets the strong elements of the racial stereotypes of
Americans and Africans (Pfeffer & Hertel, 2015). Furthermore I think the television industry
portrays the two genders in a very different way. Females are portrayed as the weaker, kinder
gender while the men are portrayed as the independent and strong character. Apart from all
these, another categories of emotion that I want to state as the harmful factor for the children is
the commercials in the television. I feel that the children tend to get deprived if they do not get

10SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
the product advertised in the television channel furthermore resulting in frustration, anger. The
products such as the fancy food items, fancy colored drinks tend to attract the children which are
basically harmful for the health of the children. In my opinion, the television and the mass media
is a negative factor for the rowing phase of the children as it is harmful for them. With
connection to the viewing of the television , there lies some of the tremendous effects and the
consequences of excessive playing or gaming in computer. I feel that most are generally the ill
effect that involves instigating violence. I furthermore feel, my friend that it is important for the
parents of the children to the procedures and the content of the gaming of their children, to
discuss the content with their children, to establish some of the explicit guidelines in connection
to gaming and playing and initiate in educating their children regarding the contents of the media
and the real life violence. Hannah, I feel that parents have the correct goals for their children but
often they tend to have lesser knowledge regarding what is effective and what is not. What do
you think regarding the patter of family and the impact of it on the development and the growth
of the children? I feel that the parenting style typology needs to be based on the parental
demandingness and the responsiveness as a whole. We all know that the electronic media has
become one of the most essential parts of our modern day living and hence I feel it is important
to provide special attention and care to the children in their early years of development.
Hannah, what is your opinion regarding expectation and the underachievement in the field
of academics? Well, I feel the very word expected sets the target or the benchmark for the
concept of the underachievement in case of the education and the ability of the children in these
days. I feel underachievement is basically the performance of an individual below the fixed
benchmark of expectation. According to my personal insight, there lies several categories of
academic achievers.
Some of the profiles that I want to highlight to you my friend includes the rebel, the
distracted learner, the conformist, the bore learner, the stressed learner, the complacent learner,
the single sided achiever and the victim. In this above context, I feel some of the categories of
the underachiever include the anxious and the worried one, the manipulating and the acting out
one, the lazy and the unmotivated one, the oppositional and the introspective achiever. There are
several reasons for the underachievement. These may also include some of the biological factors
and issues related to disabilities (Bathmaker et al., 2016). Besides this, I feel it needs to be

11SOCIOLGY IN EDUCATION
considered that whether the child’s underachievement is specified to any particular topic or
subject. Hannah, I feel that the cycle of underachievement includes the personal belief and low
academic achievement and maladaptive behavior that finally results in reinforced by family. I
furthermore belief that students in our generation who tends to encounter the learning failures
tends to suffer assaults regarding the self esteems. They furthermore suffer hopelessness and low
self esteem. I personally feel that underachievement is basically a discrepancy among the
academic achievement and intellectual ability. The chapters of the course material helped me to
understand the fact that underachievers are also students of our times, surviving and thriving
among us and have the equal capability to succeed academically and work beyond their
potential. I feel that there lie many of the factors that contribute to the factor of
underachievement. These include leadership, attitudes of the parent, policies of the school,
scenario at home, the low self efficacy, motivation and more (Stuart, 2014). I furthermore
believe that tracking and streaming the students of our generation is dependable on the academic
performances and is perhaps one of the most major reinforce regarding the internal and the self
belief of the students who are categorized as the underachiever.
Throughout my course module I learned lots of important fact regarding the society and
the humanity in the current generation. I feel that surviving and thriving in the society in the
current decade needs achievement which can be gained by effective education. Again education
and achievements in the academic sector is dependable on the type and the category of the family
one belongs from and the level of care and support a child receive in their early years of
development (Voogt et al., 2017).
Finally thee chapter of my course module for this semester made me understand the
concept of underachieve and expectation which challenges one’s internal belief, self esteem and
the locus of control towards the achievement in the educational sector to stand out in the society
of the current modern world where we all live.
I hope now you understand why I wanted to pursue this course and how beneficial it has
been for me to improve and polish my understanding regarding the society and how it has
impacted on my personality and affected me in the professional domain to understand the people
around in the society we live. Enough of me and my course details. Tell me now, what is new