Jennifer A. Fredricks and Sandra D. Simpkins (eds): Organized Out-of-School Activities: Settings for Peer Relationships

In Organized Out-of-School Activities: Settings for Peer Relationships, editors Jennifer A. Fredricks and Sandra D. Simpkins analyze research on how peers in organized out-of-school activities shape the development of adolescents. Fredricks and Simpkins explore a variety of research that is focused particularly on youth 10–18 years of age. To develop a deeper understanding of peer influence and the impact of participation in out-of-school activities, Fredricks and Simpkins begin by examining the reasons organized activities are ideal settings to analyze peer relations. Then, they include reviews from different authors of theoretical and empirical research on peer relationships in a variety of out-of-school activities and settings, and how those peer relationships relate to variations in developmental outcomes across different types of activities. Their review contains a helpful synopsis of the current research available on peer influence and out-of-school activities, while also noting areas where research is lacking and how future studies could be better tailored to address still unanswered questions. …