Orientation toward peers and immersion in friendships are defining features of adolescence.  The diversity and importance of adolescent friendships to understanding adolescent behavior is well known to teachers.  Knowing which adolescents hang out together, for example, or which adolescents are at the fringes of involvement with their peers, provides insights into their behavior.  It is important for the classroom teacher, as well as students and their parents, to understand the dynamics of the adolescent peer group, as well as what constitutes a friendship pattern, a clique, a crowd, and a dangerous social group. 

• Understanding of Adolescent Social and Peer Groups

• Cliques

• Dangerous Social/Peer Groups

• What Teachers Can Do About Social Groups

• What Parents Can Do About Their Children and Social Groups

• What Students Can Do About Social Groups in Their School