Summary: When it comes to teen behavior, peer pressure is often treated as a single, overwhelming force. However, a groundbreaking longitudinal study has discovered that peer influence is actually highly specialized. By following 543 middle schoolers over a semester, researchers found that different types of peers control different parts of a teen’s world.
Best friends are the primary influencers for “private currency”—shaping internal emotional states and academic performance. Meanwhile, popular peers control the “public market”—setting the standards for social media use, body image, and public appearance. This distinction provides a crucial new framework for parents and educators to understand how adolescents navigate their social status.
Key Facts
- The “Private” Domain: Best friends significantly shape a child’s internal emotional health, emotional clarity, and school achievement.
- The “Public” Domain: Popular classmates set the norms for social media engagement and weight concerns/body image.
- Specialized Influence: Adolescents use different “mental calculations” for different settings; they look to their inner circle for emotional support and to “influencers” for social cues.
- Snowball Effect: Closeness in best friendships can amplify struggles like anxiety or disengagement from school, as these behaviors spread through intimate sharing.
- Status Norms: Teens emulate high-status (popular) peers to maintain their standing in the classroom hierarchy, even if they aren’t close friends with them.
Source: FAU
As children enter adolescence, peers become a dominant force in their lives. With adult supervision waning, teens look to agemates for guidance on how to act, think and fit in. But who matters most –friends or the popular classmates?
A groundbreaking longitudinal study from Florida Atlantic University reveals that peer influence is not a monolithic process. Instead, different types of peers exert influence over entirely different domains of a child’s life.
Researchers at FAU and collaborators at Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania) conducted a long-term study to directly compare these two sources of influence.
The study, published in the journal Development and Psychopathology, is the first to simultaneously compare the relative impact of best friends versus classroom norms, which are driven by popular classmates.
The findings indicate that while best friends primarily shape a child’s internal emotional state and academic behavior, popular peers set the standard for public image and social media engagement.
The investigators followed 543 students ages 10 to 14 (middle school in Lithuania is fifth through eighth grade) across a semester, examining self-reports of academic performance, emotional well-being, problem behaviors, social media use and concerns about weight.
Participants also identified their best friends and classmates they considered popular. Popularity norms described classmate behaviors in each domain, weighted by popularity scores.
“This is the first study to put best friends and popular peers in the same model and ask, ‘Who matters more, and for what?,’” said Brett Laursen, Ph.D., a professor of psychology in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
The findings revealed a striking pattern. Best friends primarily shaped a child’s internal emotional states and academic behaviors, whereas popular peers set the standard for public image. Specifically, best friends were the primary influencers for behaviors reflecting internal dysfunction and maladjustment, including emotional problems, lack of emotional clarity, problem behaviors, and low school achievement.
Popular peers, by contrast, shape behaviors performed in view of others. Teens emulate high-status classmates in terms of social media use and weight concerns.
“Peer influence is too often treated as a broad, undifferentiated force, but our findings show it is actually highly specialized. Adolescents are discerning; they look to their inner circle for emotional support and to the influencers and class leaders for social cues on how to present themselves to the world,” said Mary Page Leggett-James, Ph.D., lead author and associate researcher at Gallup, describing results from her doctoral dissertation at FAU.
“Put differently, in the social economy of a middle schooler, best friends deal in the ‘private currency’ of emotions and adjustment, while popular peers control the ‘public market’ of social media and appearance.”
The study suggests that adolescents use different mental calculations to navigate their social world. Friendships are based on reciprocity and intimacy, which promote shared experiences and emotional states.
In contrast, peer groups are organized hierarchically. Conformity through public-facing behaviors like social media use and body image are important to maintaining status in the group. Thus, youth are not just blindly following others, they are using social strategies tailored to specific social settings.
“Friendships are powerful because they are private and emotionally intense,” Laursen said. “Teens confide in their best friends. That closeness can provide support, but it can also amplify struggles. Anxiety, disengagement from school, or acting out can spread between friends and have a snowball effect. Appearance and online behavior play out on a public stage. Popular students set the standard. Others follow because that is what earns approval in the wider peer group.”
The research offers vital insights for intervention. Because different peers shape different forms of maladjustment, uniform solutions may fail.
“Peer influence is powerful, but it is not one-size-fits-all,” said Leggett-James.
“Too often we treat peer pressure as if it comes from one place. But the source of influence matters. If we target the wrong peer dynamic, we risk missing the problem entirely. To reduce emotional distress or academic problems, we need to focus on friendship dynamics and help adolescents build positive peer connections – not try to ban or break up friendships.
“At the same time, issues tied to social media and body image require shifting status norms. When popular students display healthier, more realistic standards, they can redefine what classmates consider normal.”
Co-authors are René Veenstra, Ph.D., professor of sociology at the University of Groningen, Netherlands; and Goda Kaniušonytė, Ph.D., professor at the Institute of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University.
Funding: The research was supported by the European Social Fund under a grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania, and the state budget-funded project Establishment of Centers of Excellence at Mykolas Romeris University, implemented under the Centers of Excellence Initiative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of the Republic of Lithuania.
Key Questions Answered:
A: It depends on what they’re doing! If they are feeling anxious or struggling with school, they are likely mirroring their best friend. If they are obsessed with a specific social media trend or their body image, they are likely looking at the “status leaders” in their grade. Teens use their best friends for emotional support and popular kids as a social compass.
A: Popularity in middle school is hierarchical. To stay relevant in the wider group, teens feel they must conform to the standards set by those at the top. Because appearance and social media are “public-facing” behaviors, popular students act as the trendsetters for what is considered “normal” or “desirable” in the public eye.
A: If you’re worried about your child’s mental health or grades, look at their closest inner circle. You don’t need to break up the friendship, but you should help them build positive emotional connections. If the issue is social media or body image, the focus should be on shifting “status norms”—encouraging popular students to model healthier, more realistic behaviors.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- Journal paper reviewed in full.
- Additional context added by our staff.
About this social neuroscience and neurodevelopment research news
Author: Gisele Galoustian
Source: FAU
Contact: Gisele Galoustian – FAU
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Different peers influence different behaviors: Conformity to best friends and status-based norms across the transition into adolescence” by Mary Page Leggett-James, René Veenstra, Goda Kaniušonytė, and Brett Laursen. Development and Psychopathology
DOI:10.1017/S0954579426101138
Abstract
Different peers influence different behaviors: Conformity to best friends and status-based norms across the transition into adolescence
Friends and popular peers are important sources of influence across the transition into adolescence. The present study examines the assertion that the magnitude of influence from friends and popularity-based norms varies across behavioral domains.
Participants were 543 (268 girls, 275 boys) students from 29 5th–8th grade (ages 10 to 14) classrooms in three Lithuanian public middle schools. Most were ethnic Lithuanians. Self-reports of socioemotional adjustment, including emotional problems, lack of emotional clarity, problem behaviors, social media use, and weight concerns, were collected in the fall and winter of a single academic year, approximately three months apart.
Popularity and academic achievement were assessed through peer nominations. Top-ranked best friends were identified from outgoing nominations. Status-based norms, calculated separately for each socioemotional adjustment variable in the fall (Time 1), represented popularity-weighted classroom averages.
Results from longitudinal Group Actor-Partner Interdependence Model analyses indicated that best friends and status-based norms exerted differing amounts of influence over different behaviors. When both were included in the same model (with shared effects removed), best friends influenced emotional problems, lack of emotional clarity, and problem behaviors.
Among older adolescents, best friends also influenced academic achievement. Status-based norms influenced social media use and, among older adolescents, weight concerns.
