Peer influences affect children strongly at various age levels and also in various areas. School achievement is an important area of activity. Describe how peer influences on school achievement differ across ethnic groups and possible reasons for those ethnic differences

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The direction of peer influence on school achievement depends on how important school success is valued among the child's friends and peers. When school success is positively regarded, then effects to succeed are reinforced socially. This is especially true for Caucasian and Asian-American middle-class children, for whom school success is encouraged by peers. It is also generally true for immigrant families of various ethnicities. Immigrant parents regard educational success as a pathway for socioeconomic advancement, and they encourage their children to associate with academically oriented peer groups such as departmental clubs at school. For other minorities (African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans), school achievement is discouraged socially and can even lead to social ostracism as "acting white.". Academic achievement, when labeled as a sign of intelligence, is strongly discouraged among low-income minority youth. However, when the ethnic minority child is from a middle-class home, then the prospects for school achievement are strengthened.