ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of parents where friends and the peer group come to play a large part in the life of the teenager. It addresses: why friends are important during the teenage years, the wider peer group, whether parents or friends are more influential, unsuitable friends, bullying, rejection, and isolation. In research on friendship during the stage it has been suggested that friends have a number of functions for teenagers. Where friends and the peer group are concerned, the obvious relevance of the framework comes from the S, standing for Significance. However, the move to secondary school brings teenagers into contact with this wider group, and they have to learn how to manage the pressures that stem from it. Most importantly, the way the parents respond to the teenager's friends will make a difference in the amount of influence these friends will have. Some experience rejection from the peer group because of their own aggressive or inappropriate behaviour.
