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Children and adolescents prefer using media together with friends and their peer group. Habits of media use within a peer group differ depending on the media type (e.g., print versus electronic media) and are also related to age and gender. Media use also varies from one country to another. Some forms of media are more compatible with social activity than others, and some media types can serve as status symbols.

Peer Groups

Peer groups are characterized by common leisure interests, ethical values, and preferences concerning important in-group matters such as lifestyle and music. They often consist of young friends of both genders, and in most cases, they develop in school contexts. Peers are especially important for adolescents.

Being part of a peer group represents an important developmental step, so most adolescents belong to one. Within them, social skills are fostered because corporate guidelines have to be negotiated, cooperation and mutuality are practiced, and opinions and attitudes are constructed.

The self-classification to a group of people initiates a process of social comparison, where differences between members of the group members are emphasized, sharpening the individual's perception of his or her own attributes. Allocation to peer groups takes place in a socially, developmentally, and educationally selective way. Thus, the members of a peer group play an important and active role within a child or adolescent's development.

Although peer groups do not actually change their members' habits, the organization of leisure time is markedly affected. In this way, peer group members mutually influence preferences for using media types and subtypes. Social influence concerning attitudes toward special media types is itself an important feature of a peer group. The resultant valuations can be an auxiliary means to distinguish from out-group members or from parents. However, the influence of peer group members cannot totally eliminate media use patterns previously acquired in one's family of origin.

Print Media

Unlike the use of most electronic media, reading books or journals is not normally a shared peer group activity. Even within a circle of good friends, reading together is uncommon. Peer groups play the role of rather informal agencies that indirectly foster literacy development. There is a significant relationship between the reading activities of the members of a peer group. The strength of this relationship increases with age and reaches its peak in adolescence. Reading-related communication within peer groups is also strongly associated with spending more time reading. Adolescents are highly influenced by their peers'choice of literature—the right choice of text can be a way of joining a peer group. Voluntary reading quantity is frequently affected by peers, so peer group interaction has an indirect influence on reading fluency and text comprehension. Text comprehension can be also enhanced by reading-related communication with the members of a group.

Children and adolescents who are affiliated with aggressive and school-dissociated peer groups show lower reading achievement. Students who self-select a school-dissociated peer group often experience reading habits as a differentiating feature between their own in- and the other's out-group. In this way, peer groups partially determine the development of the individual's reading-related self-concept.

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