ABSTRACT
One of the central tenets of a life-span viewpoint is the recognition of the importance of the contextualization of social behavior (Baltes, 1987; Featherman & Lerner, 1985). Individuals are best understood by an examination of their relationships with others, rather than being treated as independent agents. For students of socialization, the mother-child dyad and more recently father-child and sibling-child dyads are recognized as increasingly rich sources of insight concerning early social processes (Dunn & Kendrick, 1982; Parke, 1981; Parke & Tinsley, 1987). Recognition of larger units, such as triads and family groups has recently increased as well (Parke, 1988). Contexts outside the family are receiving recognition, including a variety of extrafamilial social relationships such as childrens’ and adults’ social networks and friendships (Oliveri & Reiss, 1987). Accompanying this recognition is the understanding that these various social contexts are related and interdependent. Families are no longer viewed as isolated but instead are conceptualized as being embedded in a set of social formal and informal social systems outside the family (Belsky, 1984; Parke & Tinsley, 1981; Tinsley & Parke, 1983). Considerable work has been executed that illustrates the importance of this contextual view for our understanding of the functioning of a variety of family relationships, including the marital dyad, and the parent-child relationships. At the same time it is increasingly clear that the influence process is bidirectional with the family not only being influenced by extrafamilial social systems but influencing these systems as well. The goal of the research program outlined in this chapter is to illustrate some of the ways in which this mutual influence process operates through an examination of the linkages between two social systems: the family and the peer group.
