At your own risk: The importance of group dynamics and peer processes in adolescent peer groups for adolescents’ involvement in risk behaviors

During adolescence peers become increasingly important to the social and emotional development of adolescents. Peer groups form one of the most important settings where adolescents socialize, find social support, and feel connected and accepted. However, these groups also form a context where adolescents influence each other in less favorable ways, such as risk behaviors. Although quite a lot is known about the influence of risk behavior by peers on an adolescent's own behavior, we know less about how and under which conditions youngsters become similar to those around them. The dissertation of Kim Pattiselanno attempts to go in to those questions and tries to increase our knowledge of how group dynamics and peer processes in adolescent peer groups relate to adolescents' involvement in risky behaviors.