The changing social world that children make: Reflections on Harris’s critique of the nurture assumption

Abstract

If children are socialized less by their parents than their peer group, psychology may fruitfully adapt social psychology’s exploration of group processes for understanding how children develop. Concerns with self-presentation, reputation, and learning subtle norms may emerge earlier and more strongly than would be the case if children were primarily interacting with their parents. The peer group culture of childhood may be a self-perpetuating culture that is somewhat independent of and possibly in opposition to the adult culture and parents’ attempts to prepare children for adulthood. Modern trends such as increasing age segregation and play-dates with adult supervision may hamper the transmission of children’s and adolescents’ peer culture.