Study: Peer Pressure Starts in Grade School; Adults Should Be Alert

June 5, 2013 COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Peer group influences affect children much earlier than researchers have suspected, finds a new University of Maryland-led study. The researchers say it provides a wake-up call to parents and educators to look out for undue group influences, cliquishness and biases that might set in early, the researchers say. The study appears in the May/June 2013 issue of Child Development, and is available online . The researchers say their work represents a new line of research – what they call "