
Description
The Adlers explore some of the patterns that develop in this social space, noting both the differences in boys' and girls' gendered cultures and the overlap in many social dynamics, afterschool activities, role behaviour, romantic inclinations and social stratification. For example, children's participation in adult-organized afterschool activities - a now-prominent feature of many American children's social experience - has profound implications for their socialization and development, moving them away from the negotiated, spontaneous character of play into the formal systems of adult norms and values at ever-younger ages. When they retreat from adults, however, they still display distinctive peer group dynamics, forging strong ingroup/outgroup differentiation, loyalty and identification. Peer culture thus contains informal social mechanisms through which children create their social order, determine their place and identity, and develop positive and negative feelings about themselves. Studying children's peer culture is thus valuable as it reveals not only how this subculture parallels the adult world but also how it differs from it.
Product Details
Publisher | Rutgers University Press |
Publish Date | January 01, 1998 |
Pages | 272 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9780813524603 |
Dimensions | 9.1 X 6.1 X 0.7 inches | 1.0 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
An excellent addition to a growing number of rich empirical studies of children's lives and peer cultures. The Adlers' study demonstrates the importance of entering children's worlds and gaining their perspectives for a new sociology of childhood.--William A. Corsaro "Indiana University"
An in-depth and often sobering amount of the social dynamics of childhood in the 1990s. This important study extends our knowledge of peer culture beyond the walls of classrooms into the day-to-day dilemmas of middle-class children as they seek power and acceptance from their peers.--Donna Eder "author of School Talk"
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