Peer Relations Lab

Overview
Ongoing Projects
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The Peer Relations Lab is involved in numerous research investigations on child and adolescent peer status, friendship, peer victimization, peer crowds, romantic relationships, and peer influence. Four sample projects are described below.

Project ADAPT
(Adolescent Development and Peer/Parent Transitions)
Studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and by the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention

Project ADAPT includes a group of longitudinal investigations of preadolescent children as they transition into adolescence. These projects focus on normative changes and interactions among peer functioning, family functioning, and physical/pubertal development during this time period as possible predictors of internalizing symptoms and health-risk behaviors over time. National data has noted sharp increases in serious destructive behaviors during this specific age period (e.g., substance use, aggressive/delinquent behavior, suicidality). Thus, these large-scale investigations are designed to prospectively examine psychosocial predictors and social-cognitive mechanisms that may be responsible for the onset of these behaviors in both normative and psychiatrically-referred populations.

Project ACHIEVE
This project examines mechanisms of adolescent peer influence towards prosocial behavior and health-risk behaviors, including substance use, illegal/violent behavior, and sexual risk-taking behavior. Theories of social conformity and attitude change are integrated with the study of peer status and social hierarchy, to better understand how adolescents behavior may be shaped by peer experiences.

Project ARCH
(Adolescent Relationships, Coping, and Health)
Funded by the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention

Project ARCH examines interpersonal interactions among boys and girls at the transition to adolescence. This longitiudinal project is conducted in our research laboratory on the UNC campus and allows us to better understand how adolescents' peer interactions, social behaviors, and emotional and physiological reactions may beassociated with future development. A focus of this project is on observations of social interactions between adolescents and their best friends.