Positive and Negative Peer Contagion In Relation To Quality of Friend and Friendship

Abstract

Peer contagion describes a mutual influence process that occurs between an individual and a peer and includes behaviors and emotions that potentially undermine one’s own development or cause harm to others. The influence process often occurs outside of awareness; participants may not intend to influence their peers, but they engage in relationship behaviors that satisfy immediate needs for an audience or companionship, and these behaviors inadvertently influence themselves or others. It can be of two types positive and negative peer contagion. Negative peer contagion include- aggression where as positive would include altruistic behavior. Different ways to reduce peer contagion would that include evaluation of aggression, intervention strategies for youth. The present study conducted on 250 adolescents (age between 13 to15). Then on the basis of screening total number of 120 subjects were selected and divided into two equal groups of 60 subjects; each group had 30 low and 30 high quality of friendship group. They were selected from different schools of South Delhi. Tools used in the study are Aggression Questionnaire, Self-report altruistic scale (SRA), Quality of friendship questionnaire; Quality of friend (Interview schedule).The result suggested that there is no interaction between quality of friend and the quality of friendship in the positive peer contagion. But desirable friend and undesirable friend and high and low quality of friendship can distinguished on the positive peer contagion. On the negative peer contagion there is interaction between the quality of friendship and quality of friend and also high quality of friendship is highly related to it, also negative peer contagion is more related to undesirable friend.