CHAPTER 35
School and Peer Factors
Though family life undoubtedly has a powerful influence on many aspects
of development, it is important to remember that most children and
adolescents inhabit more than one social world. Even in the toddler years,
experiences in day care can be very different from experiences at home.
From the preschool years onwards, peer relationships become increasingly
important. Close friendships can buffer children and adolescents from the
impact of other adversities, while peer rejection, victimisation or involve-
ment in a deviant peer group can all contribute to the onset of psychiatric
problems. The peer group and the family are two different social worlds;
the classroom is a third social world, and it, too, can influence emotional
and behavioural problems for better or for worse. A supportive teacher and
success in some area of the school curriculum can promote self-esteem
and resilience, while a hostile teacher and school failure can have the
opposite effect. A chaotic classroom, like a chaotic family environment,
can train children and adolescents to become coercive and disruptive by
rewarding these behaviours through greater attention and fewer demands.
It is important to consider classroom and peer factors in any assessment,
and not just when the individual’s emotional or behavioural problems are
mainly restricted to the classroom or playground. Stresses in one setting
sometimes present with psychiatric problems in a different setting; stresses
at home (such as sexual abuse) may lead to behavioural problems that
are most prominent at school, while stresses at school (such as bullying)
may lead to distress or disturbance that is more evident to parents than
to teachers.
Bully-victim problems
Bullying refers to repeated and deliberate use of physical or psycholog-
ical means to hurt someone, without adequate provocation and in the
knowledge that the victim is unlikely to be able to retaliate effectively.
Most bullying occurs in school rather than on the way to or from school.
Bullies and victims are commonly in the same school year. Although pupils
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Third Edition. Robert Goodman and Stephen Scott.
©c2012 Robert Goodman and Stephen Scott. Published 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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