peer groups
Age-matched social circles
Peer groups are collections of people who share similar age, status, or social position.
The term appears most often in discussions of childhood and adolescent development, where peer groups exert powerful influence on behavior and identity: Peer groups shape how teenagers dress, talk, and think about themselves.
In professional contexts, a peer group consists of colleagues at roughly the same level or in comparable roles.
- classmatesStudents in same course
- social circleNetwork of acquaintances
- adolescenceTeenage developmental stage
- lunch tableMidday meal seating
- colleaguesProfessional associates
teammates · conformity · fitting in · friendship · cohort · collective behavior · identity formation · finding your tribe · groupthink · social comparison · youth subcultures · rites of passage · cliques · in crowd · cool kids · social hierarchy · social cohesion · mentorship programs
- groupsteam, teams, club, clubs, gang
- adolescencepuberty, teenager, coming-of-age, growing up, teen
- collegecampus, courses, application, dorms, dorm room
- groupingsgroups, categories, classes, divisions, clusters
- social developmentsocialization, social skills, friendship, social behavior, belonging
- social groupsdemographic groups, community, clan, ethnic groups, age groups
peer groupsauthority figures
People wielding institutional power
mentors · supervisors · elders · superiors · subordinates
peer groupselders
Senior community members
ancestors · descendants · predecessors · successors · forebears
peer groupsinstitutions
Established organizations or practices
bureaucracies · family units · loners · nuclear family · outcasts
group, peer, grouping, grouped, peers, peerless, peerage, subgroup, grouper