WHERE IS THE CHILDS ENVIRONMENT - A GROUP SOCIALIZATION THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

Do parents have any important long-term effects on the development of their child's personality? This article examines the evidence and conc ludes that the answer is no. A new theory of development is proposed: that socialization is context-specific and that outside-the-home socia lization takes place in the peer groups of childhood and adolescence. Intra- and intergroup processes, not dyadic relationships, are respons ible for the transmission of culture and for environmental modificatio n of children's personality characteristics. The universality of child ren's groups explains why development is not derailed by the wide vari ations in parental behavior found within and between societies.