The experience of adolescence is complicated by a variety of influences that can have both positive and negative effects. A range of research has shown that economic hardship is associated with dysfunctional families and with a range of difficulties for adolescents, including risk-taking. This sort of stress is likely to have a negative effect on parenting, yet positive parenting can also profoundly affect outcomes for young people. Adolescents also tend both to seek out peers like themselves and to become more like the peers with whom they associate—and here, too, the net effect may be positive or negative, although the precise mechanisms of these fluid relationships have not been systematically traced.