title: Adolescent peer group identification and characteristics: a review of the literature.
abstract: This study provides an exhaustive review of 44 peer-reviewed quantitative or qualitative data-based peer-reviewed studies completed on adolescent peer group identification. Adolescent peer group identification is one's self-perceived or other-perceived membership in discrete teenage peer groups. The studies reviewed suggest that adolescent peer groups consist of five general categories differentiable by lifestyle characteristics: Elites, Athletes, Academics, Deviants, and Others. We found that the Deviant adolescent group category reported relatively greater participation in drug use and other problem behaviors across studies, whereas Academics and Athletes exhibited the least participation in these problem behaviors. Additional research is needed in this arena to better understand the operation of adolescent group labels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, University of Southern California, 1000 S Fremont Avenue, Alhambra, CA 91803, USA. ssussma@usc.edu
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sussman
authors.forename: Pallav
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pokhrel
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Ashmore
authors.forename: B Bradford
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires