Do friendships change behaviors, or do behaviors change friendships? Examining paths of influence in young adolescents' alcohol use

Moderators of the association between peer and target adolescent substance use

“…First, in most studies, peers were defined as either "the best friend" or a group of friends. Studies that relied on the best friend (Bot, et al, 2005;Branstetter, et al, 2011;De Kemp, Scholte, Overbeek, & Engels, 2006;Henry, Kobus, & Schoeny, 2011;Jackson, 1997;Larsen, et al, 2010;Rees & Pogarsky, 2010;Sieving, et al, 2000) did so because it was hypothesized that this friend usually shared a more intense and intimate relationship with the target and thus had a stronger influence (Rybak & McAndrew, 2006). However, there was little evidence supporting this hypothesis, with only a few studies showing that best friends had a strong influence on adolescents' alcohol use (Jackson, 1997;Urberg, et al, 1997), whereas other studies found only trivial or no effects (Bot, et al, 2005;Jaccard, et al, 2005;Larsen, et al, 2010).…”

“…The second key issue in studies investigating peer association consists in asking the target adolescents questions about their friends' substance use (Cumsille, et al, 2000;Dick, et al, 2007;Epstein & Botvin, 2002;Fallu, et al, 2010;Ferguson & Meehan, 2011;Fergusson, et al, 2002;Fergusson, Woodward, & Horwood, 1999;Fite, Colder, & O'Connor, 2006;Guo, et al, 2002;Henry, et al, 2011;Henry, et al, 2005;Musher-Eizenman, et al, 2003;Nash et al, 2005;Patterson, Dishion, & Yoerger, 2000;Sieving, et al, 2000;Simons-Morton, 2004;Vitulano, Fite, & Rathert, 2009;Warr, 1993). This way of assessing peer behavior may reflect more a target adolescents' perceived norms about substance use than an objective measure of friends' actual substance use.…”

“…On the one hand, the socializing theory states that peers' deviant behaviors and substance use are important in explaining an individual's future actions. This theory is particularly important in explaining the role of peers on targets' substance use and is referred to in many longitudinal studies (Reifman, et al, 1998;Sieving, Perry, & Williams, 2000;Wills & Cleary, 1999). On the other hand, the peer-selection theory states that an individual's own deviance and substance use will influence which friends they select.…”

Social network e capitale sociale degli ex ospiti di Comunità Libertà: drug-free e ricaduti a confronto

“…In questo secondo filone rientrano i lavori di ricerca che hanno analizzato l'associazione tra uso di sostanze e proprietà delle reti sociali nella popolazione adolescente, riportando l'esistenza di un collegamento tra il contesto sociale in cui i giovani sono inseriti -in termini di natura della relazione con i membri della rete, presenza di un largo numero di persone che fanno uso di droga, influenza esercitata dal gruppo dei pari -e la maggiore probabilità di uso illecito di droghe [Donato et al, 1994;Meijer et al, 1994;Wang et al, 1997;Urberg et al, 1997;Friedman et al, 1997;Sieving et al, 2000;Mason et al, 2004Mason et al, , 2010Mennis & Mason, 2011].…”

Peer social network and adolescent alcohol use

“…Many studies 4,8,9,[16][17][18][26][27][28] have found evidence that both processes are important for understanding peer similarities in alcohol use. Others have, however, found that peer influence is more important than peer selection 6,20,25 , which is somewhat contradictory to Knecht and colleagues 10 who found selection to play a relatively more significant role than social influence in predicting similarity between friends' alcohol use.…”