ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to suggest some of the ways that the influences of the larger society are transmitted to children, to set some of the parameters for peer relations, and in turn affect the access children and adolescents have to opportunities for companionship, for the learning of important social skills, and for the satisfaction of intimacy needs. We are challenging the reader to look beyond personality characteristics, the parent-child dyad, and family dynamics for explanations of differences in peer relationships, and the impacts of those relationships on development. Four studies are presented as a starting point, to illustrate the links in a conceptual chain connecting macrolevel factors with networks, peer relations, and peer-related social outcomes. Then we introduce and discuss briefly a conceptual model for understanding how society affects the development of networks, and how network characteristics in turn affect human development. Following introduction of the model, we draw on the work of others to justify a basic assumption underlying our own research; that peer relations have significance for development in childhood and adolescence. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to presentation and discussion of findings from the Cornell Family Matters Project; findings that lead us to propose that the structure of society shapes peer relations, and that parents' networks provide one of the primary means by which these societal influences reach the developing child.
