Adolescents' Perceptions of Friends' and Parents' Influence on Aspects of their School Adjustment

Abstract

Junior high school students' perceptions of their friends' influence on their attitudes, behavior, and performance in school were examined in two studies. In the first study, adolescents' perceptions of friends' influence were also compared with their perceptions of parents 'influence. Only a minority of the students in each study perceived their friends as influencing the various aspects of their adjustment to school. The adolescents in Study 1 perceived parents as more influential than friends. Students' reports on their own adjustment to school were positively correlated, in both studies, with their perceptions of their friends' adjustment. There were no significant relations, however, between the measures of perceived influence and of students' own adjustment. That is, students who were better adjusted to school did not consistently report either more or less influence of friends. The reasons that students gave for an absence of friends' influence clarify potentially important constraints on the actual influence of friends.