Project description

One in four young adults feels unloved, one in five feels lonely, and one in ten has no close friends. Some adolescents are more successful in making friends and are better socially integrated than others. Why is this the case and what does it mean for one’s development? CAPE explores how peer experiences, such as friendships and peer acceptance but also bullying and victimization in adolescence may have an impact on our social lives in different contexts as young adults. This research is informed by different theoretical approaches including social learning and attachment theory, and we conduct qualitative interviews with young adults alongside using large, quantitative datasets.

CAPE also explores continuity in peer experiences across generations. Parents who have been bullied a lot when they were younger might be especially alert to problems in their children’s interactions with peers and friends. Alternatively, it might be that peer experiences in parents and children are similar because family members share the same genetic make-up. For this part of the project, CAPE utilizes data from the TRacking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). In TRAILS a large group of young people in the north of the Netherlands has completed a lot of questionnaires and tests every 2-3 years since they were 11 years old. They are now in their late twenties and some have their own children. The intergenerational spin-off study TRAILS NEXT follows those families. In CAPE, we study the first steps of young children into the social world and explore the role of their parents therein.

CAPE is funded by an ERC Starting Grant awarded to Tina Kretschmer in 2017.