Any group in which most members have roughly equal status within the confines and functions of the group. The role of the peer group in the development of personality was brought to the fore in Judith Rich Harris s book The Nurture Assumption published in 1998 and revised in 2009 in which she claimed that parental socialization has relatively little effect compared to that exerted by the peer group during adolescence. It proved to be a controversial claim subjected to a range of criticisms such that it did not take account of the benefits derived from early intervention.
See Ecological systems theory, Friendship, Non-shared environmental influences, Social network, Socialization, Sociometry, Parenting, Peers