Question

How can the need for acceptance by a peer group negatively impact family

Answer 1

In contrast to peer acceptance, which is an index of how much the group as a whole likes or dislikes a particular individual, friendship is a dyadic-level construct referring to a voluntary, mutually interdependent relationship with a shared history between partners.
Peer acceptance is distinct from friendship in that it refers to the degree to which individuals are liked or not liked by classmates in a setting such as a classroom or school grade. The level of acceptance of an individual is typically determined by sociometric ratings or nominations by peers in the setting. Individuals who receive the highest summary scores are considered to be well liked or sociometrically popular and those who receive the lowest scores are considered to be the least liked or rejected.
Not everyone is or wants to be popular. Most individuals do want to be accepted and liked by peers. The experience of being liked by peers has tended to be concurrently associated with more positive body image. Still there has been inconsistency in the relationship between peer-reported acceptance measures and body image satisfaction, probably due to variations in measurement and age of participants.
There has been impressive consistency, however, in the connection between the perception of acceptance by peers and body image regardless of gender and age.
Individuals who are uncertain about their acceptance by peers are much more likely to seek validation from others and base their worth on the reflected evaluations from peers. In these instances, individuals who think that social acceptance is achieved through conformity to body ideals are vulnerable to body dissatisfaction. These individuals conceptualize peer acceptance as contingent on appearance and often engage in ‘if only’ cognitions related to acceptance. For girls, these beliefs have been evaluated for being thinner (“If only I were thinner, then boys would be more attracted to me”); for boys, the focus has been on being thin as well as more muscular (“If only I were more muscular, then girls would like me more”).