Friendship Cliques Research Articles

With a Little Help from My Peer Clique: Mitigating the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty

Abstract Driven by two theoretical models of the resiliency framework, this paper examines the compensatory and protective role of interacting with peers in late adolescence in inhibiting the intergenerational transmission of poverty into young adulthood. We suggest different compensatory and protective effects of three peer contexts, referring to specific advantages of group-based friendship networks (i.e. cliques) in comparison with dyadic best friendships and romantic relationships. Further, we assume heterogeneity in the peer resilience mechanisms by age, migration background, and gender. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and random-effects linear probability models, we indeed find conditional compensatory influences as well as an unconditional protective effect of clique interaction in late adolescence for the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Hence, frequent interaction within friendship cliques compensates the deleterious effect of long-term poverty in adolescence on the risk of poverty in young adulthood with increasing age as well as particularly for first-generation immigrants. Further, the engagement with peer cliques in late adolescence attenuates the association between long-term youth poverty and adulthood poverty and thus helps to protect against the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Not very competent but connected: Leaders' use of employee social networks as prisms to make delegation decisions.

Delegation is a critical tool for busy managers. Early delegation research suggests that managers are reluctant to delegate beyond a few highly competent employees or those with whom they have a strong relationship. Extending this line of research, we integrate signaling theory with a view of social networks as "prisms," to demonstrate the relevance of employees' network ties in the work unit for delegation. Signaling theory argues that when direct data about employee competence are mixed or ambiguous, decision makers will look for more indirect signals with which to make inferences about quality and reputation. One such signal is suggested by the networks as "prisms" perspective, which argues that network ties can operate as reputational signals in the absence of more direct quality data. Combining these insights and data from a field study and two follow-up laboratory studies, we find that in situations of moderate employee competence, managers will draw positive reputational inferences and be more willing to delegate to employees when such employees are more central in the friendship network of the work unit as well as when they share common memberships in friendship cliques with the managers. These network ties, however, do not matter for delegation decisions when there are direct data to indicate that employees are highly competent or clearly poor performers. Our lab studies elucidate the mediating role of perceived reputation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Instrumental and affective ties within the laboratory: The impact of informal cliques on innovative productivity

AbstractResearch SummaryIn this paper, we contribute to research on networks and innovation by distinguishing between instrumental and affective ties and assessing their impact on individual innovativeness. In particular, using original data from the corporate R&D laboratory of a global pharmaceutical company, we evaluate how a specific structural arrangement (i.e., belonging to a clique) affects inventors' innovative productivity. Our results show that both instrumental/knowledge‐sharing cliques and affective/friendship cliques correlate positively with inventors' innovative productivity. However, we also observe that when inventors straddle knowledge‐sharing and friendship cliques, their innovative productivity declines.Managerial SummaryFirms competing in knowledge‐intensive industries rely on the productivity of their inventors to develop innovations. Within these firms, inventors' innovative productivity is influenced by the people they interact with and by the benefits and costs associated with maintaining these relationships. We find that inventors' innovative productivity is enhanced by having strong and embedded relationships with their colleagues, regardless of these relationships being based on knowledge‐sharing ties or friendship ties. However, when inventors are caught in between strong knowledge‐sharing ties and strong friendship ties, their innovative productivity suffers, ultimately hampering the firm's innovative capabilities.

Who asks whom for help in mathematics? A sociometric analysis of adolescents' help-seeking within and beyond clique boundaries

In this research, we investigated adaptive academic helpseeking in mathematics, i.e., asking better performing peers for help, and the factors facilitating or undermining it. We measured adolescents' sociometric friendship and mathematics help-seeking nominations in 50 classrooms of the 9th grade. Based on friendship nominations, we identified cliques and compared mathematics help-seeking within and beyond cliques. Multilevel analyses accounting for individual and classroom characteristics, as well as similarity on the pair level, showed that students, overall, were more likely to nominate better performing helpers who shared their gender, migration background status, and religious affiliation. Further, students were more likely to nominate helpers from within their own friendship cliques. When students outside the clique were nominated as helpers, they performed much better than nominated within-clique helpers. Low-achieving students were less likely to nominate helpers. We discuss how factors undermining adolescents' adaptive help-seeking can be overcome in the classroom.

Instrumental and Affective Ties within the Lab: The Impact of Informal Cliques on Innovative Productivity

In this paper, we contribute to research on networks and innovation by distinguishing between instrumental and affective ties and assessing their impact on individual innovativeness. In particular, using original data from the corporate R&D laboratory of a global pharmaceutical company, we evaluate how a specific structural arrangement (i.e. belonging to a clique) affects inventors’ innovative productivity. Our results show that both instrumental/knowledge-sharing cliques and affective/friendship cliques correlate positively with inventors’ innovative productivity. However, we also observe that when inventors straddle knowledge-sharing and friendship cliques, their innovative productivity declines.

When Brokerage Between Friendship Cliques Endangers Trust: A Personality–Network Fit Perspective

Workplace friendship obligations of openness and favoritism are likely to conflict with organizational norms of discretion and neutrality. This dilemma is especially apparent for Simmelian brokers, who divide time and attention across multiple otherwise disconnected friendship cliques. In two samples, we found support for the core idea that the fit between the requirements of the network role and the personality of the individual facilitates trust. Simmelian brokers are trusted by their friends if they exhibit a role-appropriate diplomatic personality style involving flexibility of self-presentation (high self-monitoring) and inhibition of verbal loquaciousness (low blirtatiousness). Of course, not everyone engages in Simmelian brokerage. Some individuals experience a strongly cohesive situation: a single friendship clique within which they are embedded. For these non-brokers, we hypothesized and found that the most appropriate trait combination likely to maintain the trust of a group of tightly-bound colleagues involved a forthright, be-true-to-yourself, loquacious personality style (i.e., low self-monitoring, high blirtatiousness). In introducing a personality-network fit perspective concerning whether Simmelian brokers are trusted by their colleagues, we help reconcile discrepancies in prior literature concerning whether or not these brokers are paralyzed into indecision by cross pressures. Brokers who flexibly and guardedly manage individuality facilitate interconnection across cliques.

Popularity in the Peer Group and Victimization Within Friendship Cliques During Early Adolescence

Victimization has been primarily studied within the broader peer group, leaving other potentially important contexts, such as friendship cliques, unexplored. This study examined the role of popularity in identifying protective factors that buffer against victimization within early adolescents’ ( N = 387) friendship cliques. Previously identified protective factors that buffer against victimization within the broader peer group were examined as moderators in the link between popularity and victimization within the friendship clique. Results showed that peer-group features operated as either vulnerability or protective factors, depending upon popularity, gender, and the form of victimization. At higher levels of popularity, receiving social support from clique members operated as a vulnerability factor for overt victimization, whereas preference served a protective function. Prosocial behavior directed toward clique members was protective against relational victimization for girls who were higher in popularity, but was a vulnerability factor for boys who were higher in popularity.

Incorporating Covariates Into Stochastic Blockmodels

Social networks in education commonly involve some form of grouping, such as friendship cliques or teacher departments, and blockmodels are a type of statistical social network model that accommodate these grouping or blocks by assuming different within-group tie probabilities than between-group tie probabilities. We describe a class of models, covariate stochastic blockmodels (CSBMs), that incorporates covariates into blockmodels. These models not only estimate the effects of covariates in the presence of the block structure but also can determine differential covariate effects such as within blocks versus between blocks. For example, education researchers can now determine those factors that mitigate relationships both within schools and between schools. We introduce several CSBMs as examples and present a series of simulation studies to investigate both the feasibility and some operating characteristics as well as fit CSBMs to real network data.

Risk and protection factors in the peer context: how do other children contribute to the psychosocial adjustment of the adolescent?

As children become adolescents, peers assume greater importance in their lives. Peer experiences can either help them thrive or negatively affect their psychosocial adjustment. In this review article definitions for the types of peer experiences are provided followed by an overview of common psychosocial issues encountered by adolescents. Past research that has pointed to risk and protection factors that emerge from peer experiences during adolescence and the role of peer influences in the context of current issues relevant to adolescent education are discussed. Research suggests that friendships with deviant peers, involvement in bullying and the experience of rejection from the overall peer group are related to adjustment problems, whereas friendships with prosocial and academically oriented peers and social acceptance in the peer group are related to healthy development. Friendship quality, popularity among peers, and involvement in friendship cliques cannot be clearly categorized as either positive or negative influences, because they interact with other factors in shaping the development of adolescents. The promotion of social skills and positive youth leadership as an integral part of the student's learning process in school is recommended.

Friendship cliques: a comparison of the motivational traits of lower/upper track algebra students

This project examined the relationships among the motivation and cognitive profiles of adolescent friendship cliques and peripheral (outside the clique group) students in lower and upper track algebra classes. Two hundred and thirty students from two high schools completed a motivation and cognitive engagement instrument as well as a peer group nomination survey form. Twelve teachers were also asked to complete peer group nomination survey forms. This project used socio-metric and correlational techniques based on previous research traditions in exploring friendship and peer group research to examine these relationships. The results were consistent with theoretically driven predictions and extend previous findings of the impact of friendship cliques in lower grade levels to those of adolescents in the high school setting. Future research in adolescent friendship/clique group research is also discussed.

Peer Culture and Body Image Concern Among Australian Adolescent Girls: A Hierarchical Linear Modelling Analysis

Peers may influence the body image concerns and disordered eating behaviours of adolescent girls through the creation of appearance cultures within friendship cliques. The present study investigates the role of friendship cliques and school gender composition in impacting upon adolescent girls’ body image concern and disordered eating behaviours, using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM), a statistical procedure employed in the analysis of nested data. A sample of 156 girls was drawn from four private schools located in the capital city of Western Australia (one single-sex school and three mixed-sex schools). Eighty students from the single-sex school and 76 female students from the mixed-sex schools, comprising 35 friendship cliques, completed questionnaires assessing body image, disordered eating, and a range of variables that have previously been associated with body image concern and disordered eating, including appearance-based social comparison, frequency of appearance-based conversation, appearance-based criticism, friends’ concern with thinness, media influence and media pressure. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses found that friendship cliques in all-girls schools exhibited similar levels of body image concern and dieting behaviours, with various peer and other media influence variables accounting for these similarities. Friendship cliques in mixed-sex schools were not found to be similar with regard to body image concern or disordered eating. These findings support the notion that friendship groups can be an important source of influence on the body image concerns of adolescent girls in single-sex schools, and show that both individual and friendship clique level measures of attitudes and behaviours make independent contributions to the prediction of these body image concerns.

The Micro-Macro Link for the Theory of Structural Balance

I consider the principle of structural balance that is commonly characterized with the aphorisms: “The friend of a friend is a friend, the friend of an enemy is an enemy, the enemy of a friend is an enemy, and the enemy of an enemy is a friend.” I study what patterns of friendship and hostility emerge at the macro-level when actors at the micro-level make friends and enemies in accordance with this principle. Recent studies have drawn attention to configurations that are imbalanced with many triadic relations violating structural balance yet jammed because no change in sentiment in any one relation can accomplish a net reduction in the number of violations of structural balance. The existence of such jammed states suggests that individual behavior consistent with structural balance need not aggregate to system-wide satisfaction of the principle. To investigate this I employ a best-response model of sentiment change on a fixed social network. I show that under a broad set of model conditions only configurations in which all triadic relations satisfy the structural balance principle can emerge. In a close-knit community in which all actors maintain relations with all other actors such a balanced configuration must consist of either one friendship clique or multiple antagonistic groups.

Peer influence and selection effects on adolescent smoking

Background Studies showing that adolescents are more likely to smoke if they have friends who smoke typically infer that this is the result of peer influence. However, it may also be due to adolescents choosing friends who have smoking behaviors similar to their own (i.e., selection). One of the most influential studies of influence and selection effects on smoking concluded that these processes contribute about equally to peer group homogeneity in adolescent smoking ( Ennett and Bauman, 1994). The goal of this study was to conduct a partial replication of these findings. Methods Data are from 1223 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Spectral decomposition techniques identified friendship cliques, which were then used as the unit of analysis to examine influence and selection effects over a one-year period. Results Non-smokers were more likely to become smokers if they initially belonged to a smoking (vs. non-smoking) group, and smokers were more likely to become non-smokers if they initially belonged to a non-smoking (vs. smoking) group, indicating an influence effect on both initiation and cessation. Further, group members who changed groups between waves were more likely to select groups with smoking behavior congruent to their own, providing evidence of a selection effect. Conclusions While our results generally replicate the group analyses reported by Ennett and Bauman (1994), they suggest that peer influence and selection effects on adolescent smoking may be much weaker than assumed based on this earlier research.

Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Disturbances in Early Adolescence: A Structural Modeling Investigation Examining Negative Affect and Peer Factors

This study tested five proposed models of the relationship of negative affect and peer factors in early adolescent body dissatisfaction, dieting, and bulimic behaviors. A large community sample of girls in early adolescence was assessed via questionnaire ( X age = 12.3 years). Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that negative affect mediated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and bulimic behaviors. Body dissatisfaction also contributed independently to the concurrent prediction of bulimic behaviors. The proposed pathways from dieting to negative affect and dieting to bulimic behaviors were not supported. However, perceived peer influence, perceived weight-related teasing, and the self-reported eating behaviors of friendship clique members all contributed significantly to the concurrent prediction of individual eating pathology. These findings highlight the importance of negative affect and both perceived and actual peer attitudes and behaviors in early adolescent eating pathology.

Aggressive and Prosocial Behaviors within Early Adolescent Friendship Cliques: What's Status Got to Do with It?

This study involved an examination of the role of perceived popularity and social dominance in the social behaviors used within early adolescents' ( N = 387) friendship cliques. A status hierarchy between cliques within each grade (based on peer-rated perceived popularity) and a status hierarchy between individuals within each clique (based on friend-rated social dominance) were delineated. Results revealed that adolescents' within-clique dominance rank and their clique's collective perceived popularity status were independently related to their social behaviors used within their cliques and their likability by friends and peers. Levels of aggression were highest within perceived popular cliques and perceived unpopular cliques, whereas levels of prosocial behavior and friend/peer likability were lowest in perceived unpopular cliques. Findings also indicated that aggression toward clique members was associated with social dominance within the clique. However, dominant adolescents using both aggressive and prosocial behaviors within their cliques may be afforded the most social rewards.

Do friends share similar body image and eating problems? The role of social networks and peer influences in early adolescence

This study examined the role of friendship networks and peer influences in body image concern, dietary restraint, extreme weight loss behaviours (EWLBs) and binge eating in a large community sample of young adolescent females. Based on girls’ self-reported friendship groups, social network analysis was used to identify 173 friendship cliques. Results indicated that clique members shared similar scores on measures of dieting, EWLB and binge eating, but not body image concern. Average clique scores for dieting, EWLB and binge eating, were also correlated significantly with clique averages on measures of perceived peer influence, body mass index and psychological variables. Multiple regression analyses indicated that perceived peer influences in weight-related attitudes and behaviours were predictive of individual girls’ level of body image concern, dieting, EWLB use and binge eating. Notably, an individual girl's dieting and EWLB use could be predicted from her friends’ respective dieting and EWLB scores. Findings highlight the significance of the peer environment in body image and eating problems during early adolescence.

Conflicts, friendship cliques and territorial displays in senior center environments

Humans are territorial, laying claim to places and objects as a way of regulating social interaction and fulfilling a variety of social motives. We observed territoriality to facilitate both inclusionary and exclusionary group behaviors within senior center spaces. We observed approximately 300 participants over 120 h and interviewed 30 participants in three multipurpose senior centers. Territories supported group identity and interaction for friends who shared dining tables in two centers. However, those two centers also had frequent dining area territorial conflicts and few other spaces or opportunities for meaningful center participation. The conflicts entailed the reinforcement of social cliques at the cost of exclusion of others. A third center exhibited fewer territorial conflicts and a wider variety of shared and attractive settings, such as a living room and hobby rooms. In addition, strong self-governance of this center allowed participants to lay claim to the entire center, rather than relying on ownership of specific dining seats.

Inner-City Youth Development Organizations: Strengthening Programs for Adolescent Girls.

The challenges of early adolescence are intensified for girls of color who live in disadvantaged urban communities. One response to the needs of these girls comes from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), a youth development organization that has a long-standing presence in inner-city neighborhoods. A gender equity initiative designed to strengthen programming for minority girls at a BGCA affiliate in a major urban center was examined. Drawing on initial qualitative findings, a conceptual framework is presented for understanding the ways in which the clubs can affect urban early adolescent girls' self-esteem. Several strategic choices confronting this initiative then are considered. The authors emphasize the creation of a "home place" that enables the development of self via organizational responsiveness to girls' voices, strong bonds between girls and staff, adaptive peer friendship cliques, and the development of programs that fuse the interests of girls and adult staff.

Friendship clique and peer influences on body image concerns, dietary restraint, extreme weight-loss behaviors, and binge eating in adolescent girls.

Friendship clique and peer influences on body image concerns, dietary restraint, extreme weight-loss behaviors, and binge eating in adolescent girls.

Friendship clique and peer influences on body image concerns, dietary restraint, extreme weight-loss behaviors, and binge eating in adolescent girls.

This study explored friendship variables in relation to body image, dietary restraint, extreme weight-loss behaviors (EWEBs), and binge eating in adolescent girls. From 523 girls, 79 friendship cliques were identified using social network analysis. Participants completed questionnaires that assessed body image concerns, eating, friendship relations, and psychological family, and media variables. Similarity was greater for within than for between friendship cliques for body image concerns, dietary restraint, and EWLBs, but not for binge eating. Cliques high in body image concerns and dieting manifested these concerns in ways consistent with a high weight/shape-preoccupied subculture. Friendship attitudes contributed significantly to the prediction of individual body image concern and eating behaviors. Use of EWLBs by friends predicted an individual's own level of use.