Attempts to keep it in ridiculously small groups (9)
I believe the answer is:
trinities
'small groups' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both groups as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'attempts to keep it in ridiculously' is the wordplay.
'attempts' becomes 'tries' ('try' can be a synonym of 'attempt').
'to keep' is an insertion indicator.
'ridiculously' is an anagram indicator.
'it'+'in'='itin'
'itin' is an anagram of 'niti'.
'tries' placed around 'niti' is 'TRINITIES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for trinities that I've seen is " trios".)