Susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence in adolescence

Abstract

Introduction Adolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence and previous studies have shown that this susceptibility decreases with age. The current study used a cross-sectional experimental paradigm to investigate the effect of age and puberty on susceptibility to both prosocial and antisocial influence. Methods Participants (N = 520) aged 11–18 from London and Cambridge (United Kingdom) rated how likely they would be to engage in a prosocial (e.g. “help a classmate with their work”) or antisocial (e.g. “make fun of a classmate”) act. They were then shown the average rating (in fact fictitious) that other adolescents had given to the same question, and were then asked to rate the same behaviour again. Results Both prosocial and antisocial influence decreased linearly with age, with younger adolescents being more socially influenced when other adolescents’ ratings were more prosocial and less antisocial than their own initial rating. Both antisocial and prosocial influence significantly decreased across puberty for boys but not girls (independent of age). Conclusions These findings suggest that social influence declines with increasing maturity across adolescence. However, the exact relationship between social influence and maturity is dependent on the nature of the social influence and gender. Understanding when adolescents are most susceptible to different types of social influence, and how this might influence their social behaviour, has important implications for understanding adolescent social development.

It's right, but risky too: Inclusive behavior as a positive risk in adolescence

“…Just as Duell and Steinberg's positive risk‐taking model (2019) presents a broader conceptualization of risk from negative to positive behaviors, our findings support a wider spectrum of peer influence, from promoting negative behaviors to normalizing and supporting positive behaviors (Ahmed et al, 2020) and expand the role of the peer context in positive risk‐taking. Future work may seek to investigate what individual and group‐level factors predict positive peer influence by taking a social network approach to understand how peer groups form and asking students to more explicitly identify how attitudes and behaviors of their peer group around inclusion affect their inclusive behavior.…”

The Influence of Parenting and Friendship on Self-Esteem in Adolescents

“…The result of this study is in line with the statement of the previous research (Ahmed et al, 2020) that personality development, including individual selfesteem, is always influenced by interaction with its social situation. Self-esteem as a part of self-concept always grows and develops (Measures Self-Esteem, Chiu, 1988.Pdf, n.d.) started from the family.…”

“…The empirical evidence showed the relevancy between parenting and self-esteem in adolescents. In a nutshell, the adolescents who receive a positive closeness from their parents will also show positive self-esteem [10]. Several studies showed a condition that the neighborhood as a social agent supported and played a role in developing or maintaining the adolescents' personalities; whereby, in this context, it is the parenting.…”

“…Partially, this study also tried to empirically examine the influence of parenting on self-esteem in adolescents [13], and the influence of friendship on self-esteem in adolescents. Furthermore, this study also tried to examine the parenting indicator consisting of the parents' cooperation [10], being tolerant with children, and warmth, as well as the friendship indicator consisting of support/care, recreation, help and guidance, intimate exchanges, conflict & betrayal, and conflict resolution that are associated with selfesteem in adolescents consisting of personal interest, friendship, school, and parents [14].…”

Relationship among Materialism, Attitudes Regarding Money, Peer Influence and Satisfaction with Life in Chilean Adolescents

“…The evidence indicates that in this stage, while fears related with physical threats (such as dangers and punishments) diminish, those linked with social evaluation, acceptance and success increase strongly and that the relationship between social influence and maturity is dependent on the nature of the social influence and gender. (Ahmed et al, 2020;Westenberg et al, 2004). Thus, in this period of greater social vulnerability adolescents are more susceptible to the social influence of peers, and especially to the context of consumption in which they live (Pechmann et al, 2005;Truman & Elliott, 2019).…”