Social Participation in the Context of Peers

In regard to children and youths growing up, attention has been directed to the integration into peer contexts for some time. It can be shown that most adolescents report to be integrated into a clique or to maintain friendships and that relationships with peers are especially important to them. Against this background, peer relationships are considered to be a virtually indispensable element of growing up, which help children and youths to meet developmental challenges and to participate socially. Too often, insufficient attention is given to the fact that relationships among peers have entirely different qualities and that not all adolescents maintain sustainable relationships to their peers. Against this background, it needs to be clarified in what specific ways the relationships with peers are shaped and what consequences arise concerning the social participation of children and youths.

In the contribution outlined here, participating socially in the context of peers is going to be defined further. In doing so, the data of the study “Participation of Children and Youth in Switzerland” which was conducted at the University of Zurich from 2012 to 2014, serves as a base. Within the scope of the qualitative part of the study, instances of participation were observed ethnographically and interviews with 16 children aged ten to twelve were conducted, in which they reported on participation regarding various social contexts. According to this data, the integration into peer contexts is highly important, since youths are able to experience more distinct creative spaces and more instances of self- and co-determination here than usual. In the planned contribution, different forms of integration in peer contexts are presented in their specific arrangements. Within the framework of detailed analysis, different qualities of participation within in peer contexts can be reconstructed as well as their relevance for social integration within other contexts.