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How Do Efforts to Enhance Career Preparation Affect Peer Groups?
Author(s) -
Kiuru Noona,
Koivisto Petri,
Mutanen Pertti,
Vuori Jukka,
Nurmi JariErik
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00701.x
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , psychology , peer influence , applied psychology , social psychology , medical education , communication , medicine
The present study investigated how efforts to enhance career preparation affect peer groups. The participants were 710 9th graders who were randomized into control and intervention groups and assessed 3 times during 1 academic year: at baseline (T1, Fall), immediately after the career preparation intervention (T2, 3 months after baseline), and 5 months after the intervention (T3, Spring). The results showed, first, that maintenance of a stable clique was more likely when most clique members participated in the intervention. Second, it was found that the members of adolescents' cliques resembled each other in respect of the strength of the intervention effect. Finally, the results showed that the similarity of the clique members in career choice preparedness first decreased as a result of the short‐term impact of the intervention but then increased after the intervention was over, suggesting that peer groups were partly responsible for weakening the effect of the intervention. These results have important implications for understanding how peer groups moderate external influences on their members and how the stability of peer groups is affected by these influences.