Cliques Through the Years

Origins

Since our birth, humans have had an innate instinct to find a group they belong to. As infants and toddlers, we create these bonds with our families, sibling and caregivers. Once we begin school, children have the same desire to form cliques with their peers and create friendships.

Elementary School

Elementary school is a place where cliques help children first learn about statuses, authority and social skills. At the beginning of elementary school, friendships are formed without any judgment. Kids are able to imagine scenarios together; they are able to play with different toys without worrying so much about gender stereotypes and are able to engage in activities, such as gymnastics, without competition. As kids start going into third, fourth, and fifth grade, cliques are now beginning to start forming rough outlines. Some boys are starting to be aggressive, violent and active while others are passive and would rather read a book. These boys tend to form friendships that are similar to those interests. Girls, on the other hand, start off as loving and supportive, but there are others who begin to gossip, begin to compete and begin to reject girls. They tend to start being more aggressive, blackmailing their friendship to signal power, which in turn shows that girls need more help with their social skills. Cliques begin to be about common interest but keep getting complicated over time.

Middle School

7th grade- Cliques tend to start getting more unstable since girls are now beginning to be judgmental. Physical changes have now happened to most girls and many now want to “fight” for authority. Boys are now starting to take interest in girls and cliques can suffer from fights with its own members. Girls want to fight for the cutest guy and will sometimes ruin friendships for them. Boys are now beginning to start changing their appearance; the way they dress, the way they talk to people, and start acting mature. Cliques tend to follow the leader, seeing that it is a social norm.

6th grade- Cliques begin to form but are not so judgmental for girls. Hormones are starting to flow; girls start getting their menstrual cycle and begin to see changes in their bodies. Unlike elementary school, girls at this point tend to be more understanding of each other’s situations and form cliques to help each other through a new period in their lives. Boys start wanting to find their identities and in turn find their cliques; the skateboarders, the nerds, the band geeks, the cool kids and many more.

8th grade- Cliques are now stable. Girls are usually done fighting with each other and social statuses seem to be in place. There seems to be wanderers for both genders now. People start to not care about what others are saying and their goal is not oriented to wanting to belong but is now starting to be about what they want to do in the near future.

High School

At this point you tend to get a variety of cliques: the partiers, the stoners, anime lovers, environmentalists, drama kids, hipsters, the jocks, the smart kids, etc. The list is endless, but these categories now tend to vary with each school. Schools that have more diverse students tend to have self-segregated cliques meanwhile schools that have students of the same ethnicity and social status tend not to have so many different labels. Of course there is still a matter of popularity and socio-economical cliques, but cliques with similar ethnical background tend to be more understanding.