THOMAS J. BERNDT
Purdue University

KEUNHO KEEFE
California State University, Fullerton

Many educators and social scientists have expressed concern about the
influence of peers on adolescents' attitudes and behavior. In the 1970s,
Bronfenbrenner ( 1970) argued that adolescents often conform to pres-
sure from peers to engage in undesirable behavior. He said that "where
the peer group is to a large extent autonomous -- as it often is in the
United States -- it can exert influence in opposition to values held by
adult society" (p. 189). More recently, Bishop ( 1989) argued that many
high school students are not motivated to achieve academically, in part
because they give in to peer pressure against working hard in school
(see also Coleman, 1961; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986).

The negative view of peer influence presented by Bronfenbrenner,
Bishop, and other writers has often been challenged ( Hartup, 1983;
Kandel & Lesser, 1972). Most researchers now assume that peers can
have either a negative or a positive influence on adolescents' attitudes
and behavior. In particular, peers can either encourage adolescents to
view their school experiences positively, or encourage them to see
school as an uninteresting or hostile place. The outcomes for any
specific adolescent depend on the characteristics of the peers with
whom the adolescent spends most of his or her time. Those peers are
usually the adolescent's close friends. Several researchers (e.g., Davies
& Kandel, 1981; Epstein, 1983) have shown that adolescents whose
friends perceive school positively and behave appropriately in school
improve over time in their own perceptions and behavior. Conversely,

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