Friendship and Educational Choice

"Friendship and Educational Choice provides a unique insight into how young people go about making decisions about their educational options and the subtle, yet crucial, influence of friends and peers on these processes. It provides a critical introduction to current sociological debates about friendships and other informal relationships. In addition, it offers a thorough overview of recent research within the sociology of education, which has focused on the ways in which educational decisions are made.

Drawing on a two-year longitudinal study of young people between the ages of 16 and 18, it then argues that although these two areas of sociological research have, in the past, rarely been linked, focusing on both the impact of friends on educational decisions and the reciprocal influences that such decisions may exert on young people's friendships helps us to understand the significance and impact of educational choice in the wider lives of young people."--Jacket.