Thorne (1993) found a number of differences in the way boys and girls interact with their same-sex friends. First, girls engage in more cooperative kinds of play, for example jumping rope or practicing dance steps together. Girls also tend to say “Let’s…” or “Why don’t we” to generate this play. Second, girls like to spend times with only one or two best friends. Third, when there is a conflict among friends, girls talk about the undesirable behavior of playmates behind their backs rather than to their faces. As a result, a conflict between girls can take a long time to be resolved. On the other hand, boys engage in competitive rough-and-tumble play and physical fighting. Boys also like to appear tough by making verbal threats (for example, “I’m gonna punch you”). These kinds of threats are sometimes made in anger but they are also made in spirit of play. Boys tend more to hang around with a larger group of casual friends. Finally, boys are more direct and confrontational, so their conflicts are often over quite quickly.
There are many differences in the way teenage boys and girls are treated in school. Boys tend to be more power than girls. For example, the teacher always lets boys do heavy things such as move tables, carry the textbook and more while girls do not need to do this. Boys like to speak in the classed and teachers like boys to answer question. On the other hand, girls are more likely not to answer questions. Those are two examples that show the different between boys and girls.
The education background and goal of 2 classmates
Guangnan and me both like math and did it well when we were in high school. The major that he wants to study in the college is undecided. In the same way, I do not know what major I want to study. Both of us will continue the college after the associate degree. We all feel the main goal of going to college is get more education.
Peer Group Effects
A Peer group has both positive and negative influence in our lives. It helps shape and identifies us. Parents, teachers and peer group are the main socializing agents. Peer group is the one of them that around us. Peers are our friends and adolescent peer groups teach us more important things that our parents and teachers will not teach us. But things always have both sides. There are several reasons that adolescent peer groups are positive. Our friend will affect us in many ways. Here are some examples, when a friend starts to work hard for better grades, and this friend go to the library every day after school, and he/she does not hand out for a week and in the next test, he/she get a good grade, others will learn how to get good grades. In addition, your friends start to run every night and make them healthier and do some exercise, and you will follow doing it. Therefore, this is good. People always consider friends are parts of our life, and when we are young, sometimes we make the wrong choice to get new friends that does not fit for us. Right adolescent peer group will shape and value unique qualities. It will help us know more people. On the other hand, there are many reasons that adolescent peer groups are negative. When one friend starts to smoking or taking some drugs, maybe in the first time, you will say no to him. But when it occurs many times, you will start doing the same things. Another example is if your friend does not have the money to go out and play. He tells you to get some money from your parent’s pocket and do not let them know. And you get the money. Each time you need the money and you start to get some money from yours parent’s pocket. After many times, you start stealing. This example tells us that following is really unconscious. It is deep in your heart day by day. When you realize it, maybe it is hard for you to change it. Good friends will push us forward; bad friends will pull us back. It is important to know what is good and bad for us. We need to clearly know their qualities. Their qualities will affect us more than you think.