Explore how the peer relationship and extracurricular organized activities--like sports, the arts, and community-based organizations--influence academic functioning, social development, and problem behavior. This volume shows how out-of-school activity offers an ideal context to study peer processes, and to explore both how and why peers matter for organized activity participation.

Starting with the theoretical and empirical research on peers and organized activities, it goes on to address several questions including:

• Does co-participating in an organized activity with your friend improve the quality of the relationship?
• When do peer relations amplify the benefits of participating and when do they exacerbate negative outcomes?
• Does participation in organized activities help adolescents manage difficult transition periods?

Finally, the volume concludes with a conceptual framework to guide future research on how organized activity characteristics influence peer processes and how these processes within organized activity contexts influence outcomes for adolescents.

This is the 140th volume in this series. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in child and adolescent development. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts on that topic.