In plain language
Teenagers often describe themselves by the crowd they hang around with — the studious kids, the athletes, the populars, the rebels, or just the “normals”. But does the crowd a young person identifies with actually reflect something about their inner life and family experience? This study asked whether crowd identity is linked to two things known to matter for emotional well-being: attributional style (how people explain their successes and failures) and how they perceive their parents' style of parenting.
The researchers surveyed 893 students in their first year of high school (modal age 12) across six Catholic high schools in New South Wales, Australia. Most students (669) self-identified as studious, athletes, populars, rebels or normals, and completed measures of parental style and attributional style.
Crowd labels lined up with individual characteristics in logical ways. The sharpest contrast was between studious teens and rebels: rebels reported the most depressive way of explaining events and were the least likely to describe their mothers and fathers as authoritative (warm but firm and democratic), while studious students showed the most positive attributional style. The authors argue that crowd membership is not random — personality, thinking style and family experience help steer young people toward particular crowds, and the crowd in turn shapes them.
Key findings
- Of 893 first-year high school students, most self-identified with a peer crowd: 78 as studious, 171 as athletes, 192 as populars, 33 as rebels, and 195 as normals.
- Significant group differences emerged on mothers' authoritativeness, fathers' authoritativeness, positive attributional style, and negative attributional style.
- Rebels scored significantly higher than every other group on negative (depressive) attributional style.
- Studious students scored highest on positive attributional style, while rebels scored lowest.
- Rebels were the least likely to report authoritative parenting from either mother or father; there were no group differences on parental permissiveness or authoritarianism.
- Teens identifying as populars, athletes or normals appeared relatively well adjusted, supporting the view that crowd identity and individual characteristics are closely intertwined.
How to cite
APA
Heaven, P. C. L., Ciarrochi, J., Vialle, W., & Cechavicuite, I. (2005). Adolescent peer crowd self-identification, attributional style and perceptions of parenting. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 15, 313–318. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.823
BibTeX
@article{heaven2005adolescent,
title = {Adolescent Peer Crowd Self-identification, Attributional Style and Perceptions of Parenting},
author = {Heaven, Patrick C. L. and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Vialle, Wilma and Cechavicuite, Ieva},
journal = {Journal of Community \& Applied Social Psychology},
year = {2005},
volume = {15},
pages = {313--318},
doi = {10.1002/casp.823}
}
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Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.