I believe that relationship with peers in the teens greatly affects the children. A child might get addicted to drugs if he hangs around with his "bad" friends, although he was securely attached as a child.
-- Edited by 102intro on Tuesday 7th of April 2009 04:34:43 AM
I agree with both responses. I think social interactions in general (not just with peers but also with teachers, other family members, etc.) play a large role in the well-being of a child. As a child grows, the "internal working model" is continually changing with each experience and although the initial relationship with the parent,and the attachment style provides a basis for the model, it is affected by interactions with other people as well over time.
While I agree that "bad friends" can introduce ideas and substances, such as drugs, harmful to one's well-being, I am skeptical about how much of an effect they will have on an adolescent with secure attachment. According to the attachment/popularity trend, the secure children will become most popular. In my opinion, large amounts of popularity can make an individual central to a group of popular kids. The way I view social groups, I envision fads spreading from the top down (from the most popular to the least). What would cause the most popular kid in a group to do a drug so much that it harms him/her in the long run? I'm not sure how large of a population this will affect.
I agree that the people around affect the overall well-being of the person however another response to this post stated an interesting point that secure attachment also leads to being well-liked and so people follow that person instead of the other way around. Also something else to keep in mind is with a secure attachment, the person often learns from the those they are securely attached to and so I think that they would likely surrond themselves with people that the person they are attached to approves of or maybe even similar to them.
I totally agree that friends do play a huge role in affecting our later development, especially those friends we always "attached to". We will follow and learn what they do. If they work, we work; if they smoke, we will mostly likely develop a habit of smoking. This social attachment does affect our future developement.
I agree with this, especially with the culture today, where kids become independent from their parents from quite an early age. Teenagers today rely on each other for influence than their parents. Peer pressure is therefore a lot stronger than parental pressure
