meeting new people and gaining access to peer support

The youth workers facilitated positive peer interactions in youth work settings primarily by means of group work. These peer interactions resulted in the fostering of peer sociability, strengthening social support from peers, and sometimes developing new friendships. Significant others (for girls in particular, their mothers) and life events may, to a limited extent, impede opportunities to reinforce a youngster’s social network through participation in group-based youth work. Collaboration with mothers appears to be important in order to give girls the opportunity to expand their social network. In seven cases, the youngsters created meaningful relationships with new peers or made friendships over the year in which they were observed. Remarkably, many of them only had a few supportive peers in their own social environment in addition to the peers in the youth club. Eight youngsters who had been participating in youth work for a longer period had built friendships through their involvement in the process prior to the study. Contact with peers in the youth club offered youngsters peer sociability, expand their contacts within their social network, and gain social support from peers, such as reassurance, encouragement, and a sense of belonging. Girls, especially, engaged with other girls to deal with central issues in their transition to adulthood (such as external beauty care, relationships, and sexuality), which contributed to recognition among peers. Some youngsters maintained contact with peers they had met in youth work clubs in contexts outside the club, such as public spaces, sport events, and on social media.