Changes in peer and parent influence during adolescence: Longitudinal versus cross-sectional perspectives on smoking initiation.

3,819 6th–11th graders were administered a questionnaire to explore whether the influence of peers or parents on smoking transition differed with age or sex. 69.7% of these Ss completed the questionnaire 1 yr later. Ss were divided into smoking-status groups based on their responses to a self-report smoking measure. Overall findings indicate that both peer and parent influences were significantly predictive of subsequent transitions to higher levels of smoking. Initial onset of smoking among never-smokers was more likely for Ss with more smoking friends and parents, lower levels of parental support, and friends with lower expectations for the Ss' general and academic success. For girls, the transition from experimental to regular smoking was more likely if their friends had more positive attitudes toward their smoking and lower expectations for their general and academic success; for boys, the transition was more likely if their friends had higher expectations for their success. Contrary to previous findings, data indicate that both parents and peers exert a significant influence on adolescent behavior. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social influence and selection effects in the context of smoking behavior: Changes during early and mid adolescence.

Objective: This article examined the contribution of selection and influence processes in smoking behavior similarity among friends, and changes in these processes during early and mid adolescence. Design: Data from 1886 Dutch high school students in the control group of the European Smoking prevention Framework Approach (ESFA) study were used. Changes in selection and influence were examined during three successive waves using structural equation modeling. Main Outcome Measures: Smoking behavior of adolescents, best friends, parents, and siblings. Results: Most support was found for selection of reciprocal (pwave1,2,3 wave1,2 wave3 = 0.25), although these effects decreased over time. Support for influence was only found among nonreciprocal (desired) friends during the last wave (pwave3 wave2 wave1,3 > 0.05) and siblings (pwave1,2 wave3 = 0.16), but influence diminished over time. Conclusion: Smoking-based selection processes decreased over time while the influence of friends increased. Smoking prevention programs should focus on the structure of peer environments besides promoting social influence skills. During early adolescence parents and siblings should be targeted, while during mid adolescence, the focus should shift toward the adolescents and their dynamic peer environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer group influence on educational outcomes: A quantitative synthesis.

To estimate the correlation of peer group variables at the elementary and high school level with a range of educational outcomes, 110 correlations taken from 10 prior studies were analyzed. Peer influence was shown to be a small but consistent correlate of educational outcomes. Across 4 types of outcomes (standardized achievement tests, course grades, educational aspirations, and occupational aspirations) the median correlation with peer influence was .24. By applying methods of research integration, the strength of the peer influence–outcome relationship was found to be significantly higher in cities and was also higher in studies in which peer influence was determined by having individuals report the aspirations or achievement levels of their best friends. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social influence by group members with minority opinions: A comparison of Hollander and Moscovici.

In Exp I (144 male undergraduates), 4-person groups discussed 3 opinion issues that were selected to permit a confederate (C) to argue for the minority position. In the strategy proposed by E. H. Hollander (see record 1959-08073-001), the C argued the minority position only on the last issue, whereas in the strategy proposed by S. Moscovici and C. Faucheux (1972), the C argued it on every issue. Groups also worked a difficult math puzzle, by which the C showed or did not show competency by solving or not solving the problem. Exp II followed the same procedure except that both males and females were tested; groups contained 6 members with 2 Cs, and Cs worked 2 word problems to show competence. For males, results across both experiments showed that Hollander's model produced significantly greater influence than Moscovici's model and showed a pattern of greatest influence under conditions of high competence. In contrast, results for females showed the Moscovici and Hollander strategies to be equally effective, regardless of competence. Overall, female groups were influenced less than male groups, and both models showed significant influence relative to baseline control Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer group identification and smoking: Implications for intervention.

The present investigation had the goal of examining the relation between cigarette smoking and peer group affiliations in junior high school students. The data were obtained by administering a structured interview to 353 seventh and eighth graders. The results showed that two high-risk groups who made up 14.7% of the sample accounted for 55.6% of the smokers. In addition, a discriminant analysis revealed that cigarette smoking was the best discriminator of social group affiliations. The results suggest that smoking intervention programs will have a greater chance of being a success if they address specific social and emotional needs of individuals who are at greater risk for becoming smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of the self-image and smoker stereotype in smoking onset during early adolescence: A longitudinal study.

The present study utilized a longitudinal design to assess whether self-consistency or self-enhancement motives are predictive of future smoking onset. Participants were 1,222 nonsmoking 5th through 8th graders who were followed into the next academic year. The results showed that teens who were above the median in similarity between their self-image and smoker stereotype on coolness, sociability, and intelligence were almost twice as likely to show smoking onset at the 2nd measurement. This is supportive of a self-consistency motive for adolescent smoking. The results of this study provide an important extension to previous cross-sectional research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceiving group members: A comparison of derived and imposed dimensions.

Three studies with 54 18–55 yr olds compared 2 methods for spatially representing the perceived internal structure of small groups. R. F. Bales's (1980) Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) imposes 3 a-priori dimensions of interpersonal behavior—dominant vs submissive, friendly vs unfriendly, and instrumentally controlled vs emotionally expressive. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) derives dimensions on the basis of perceived similarity of group members. Each of the 3 studies demonstrated substantial and statistically significant overlap between the SYMLOG and MDS dimensions. In particular, the 1st MDS dimension was highly correlated with the axis of greatest differentiation in the SYMLOG space. Findings are discussed in terms of psychological salience and the behavioral attributes underlying the 3 SYMLOG dimensions. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding parent-adolescent interactions: Perceptions of family members and outsiders.

To see whether adolescents view parent–child relationships more like their parents or more like outsiders, 41 mother–father–adolescent child triads were videotaped interacting over two tasks. Each family member then viewed both interactions and rated levels of anxiety, dominance, involvement, and friendliness, for each interactant. These same interactions were also watched and rated by another mother–father–adolescent triad (outsider family) who did not know the family. These interactions were then rated by a trained observer. For ratings of anxiety, dominance, involvement, and friendliness, analyses involved comparisons (a) between the insider and outsider families ratings, on correlations between insider family members and outsider family members with the trained observer, and (b) comparisons among the three types of observers. Ratings by members of the outsider family were generally more negative than those by members of the insider family. Ratings of self tended to be more objective than ratings of other family members. Ratings by the trained observer were more highly correlated with those of the outsider family, although differences between the means showed that trained observers used a similar metric to the insider family. The importance of looking at patterns of ratings as well as mean differences is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and cheating during early adolescence.

The relations of motivational variables to self-reported cheating behaviors and beliefs in science were examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely when students perceived an emphasis on performance and extrinsic incentives rather than on mastery and improvement. Results indicated that students who reported cheating in science perceived their classrooms as being extrinsically focused and perceived their schools as being focused on performance and ability. Students who believed in the acceptability of cheating also reported personal extrinsic goals and a perceived emphasis on extrinsic factors in class. Students who reported cheating also worried about school. The reported use of deep cognitive strategies was related negatively and the use of self-handicapping strategies was related positively to cheating beliefs and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer harassment, psychological adjustment, and school functioning in early adolescence.

The relations between peer harassment, psychological adjustment, and school functioning were investigated with an ethnically diverse sample of middle school students. A conceptual model, which proposed that self-perceived peer harassment predicts psychological adjustment (loneliness, depression, and self-worth), which in turn predicts school outcomes (GPA and attendance), was tested using concurrent data (n?=?244). Structural equation modeling supported the proposed model. Longitudinal analyses with a subsample (n?=?106) of students revealed that subjective self-views of victimization were moderately stable across a 1-year period. Comparisons across stable and unstable victim groups suggested that concurrent (rather than earlier or chronic) perceptions of victimization predicted loneliness and self-worth. Finally, changes in subjective perceptions of victimization, self-worth, and loneliness across the 1-year period predicted subsequent GPA, absenteeism, and teacher-rated social adjustment. Findings are discussed in terms of the short- and long-term effects of peer harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress and smoking in adolescence: A test of directional hypotheses.

The authors conducted a comparative test of the hypotheses that (a) stress is an etiological factor for smoking and (b) cigarette smoking causes increases in stress (A. C. Parrott, 1999). Participants were a sample of 1,364 adolescents, initially surveyed at mean age 12.4 years and followed at 3 yearly intervals. Measures of negative affect, negative life events, and cigarette smoking were obtained at all 4 assessments. Latent growth modeling showed negative affect was related to increase in smoking over time; there was no path from initial smoking to change in negative affect. Comparable results were found for negative life events, with no evidence for reverse causation. Results are discussed with respect to theoretical models of nicotine effects and implications for prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective study of cigarette smoking initiation during college: Chinese and Korean American students.

Objective: The present study was a prospective investigation of baseline influences on initial smoking and transition to established smoking among college students who had not smoked prior to college. Design: Included were 267 participants in a longitudinal study of tobacco use. Students of Chinese (52%) or Korean (48%) descent were enrolled during their freshman year in college. Data for the present study were collected during four annual in-person interviews. Main outcome measures: (1) Initial use of a cigarette reflected having first smoked a cigarette (more than a puff) during college. (2) Established smoking was defined as having smoked at least 100 cigarettes. Results: Over the course of the study, 25% of baseline never-smokers tried their first cigarette, and 9% became established smokers. Overall, men were significantly more likely to experiment and progress to established smoking. Baseline alcohol and drug use, behavioral undercontrol, and parental smoking predicted smoking experimentation but not established smoking. Students of Korean ethnicity were more likely to become established smokers. However, acculturation was not a significant predictor of experimentation or established smoking after accounting for the effects of other predictors. Conclusion: These findings suggest a need for efforts to prevent smoking uptake among Asian American college students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mother and father connectedness and involvement during early adolescence.

The purpose of the current study was to explore how mother’s and father’s connectedness and involvement individually and collectively influence the lives of their children. Specifically, we asked how fathers’ and mothers’ parent–child connectedness and behavioral involvement influenced both problem behaviors (externalizing and internalizing behaviors) and positive outcomes (prosocial behaviors and hope) during early adolescence. Data for this study were taken from the Flourishing Families Project, from which 349 mothers and fathers were selected, along with their early adolescent child (mean age = 11.23 years, SD = .96). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed (even after controlling for child age, gender, and self-regulation) that mothers’ and fathers’ contributions differed, primarily as a function of child outcome. Namely, father (but not mother) connectedness and involvement were negatively related to adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors, whereas mother (but not father) connectedness and involvement were positively related to adolescents’ prosocial behaviors and hope. We also found that when one parent’s involvement was low (for whatever reason), the other parent’s involvement made a significant and important contribution to the child’s well-being, particularly in the area of internalizing behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Close friend and group influence on adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol use.

The relative influence of adolescents' closest friends and their friendship group on their cigarette smoking and alcohol use was investigated in a short-term, longitudinal study of 1,028 students in the 6th, 8th and 10th grades in 2 school systems. The amount of influence over the school year was modest in magnitude and came from the closest friend for initiation of cigarette and alcohol use. Only the friendship group use predicted transition into current cigarette use, whereas only the close friend use predicted transition into current alcohol use. Both group and close friends independently contributed to the prediction of adolescents' drinking to intoxication. No difference in the amount of influence, was found between stable and unstable close friendships or friendship groups; neither grade nor gender of the adolescents related to the amount of influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trajectories of smoking from adolescence to early adulthood and their psychosocial risk factors.

Objective: To explore patterns of persistence and change in smoking behavior as well as risk factors associated with the developmental course of smoking from age 13 to 25. Design: Data from the public use sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 5,789) were analyzed using semiparametric group-based modeling. Main Outcome Measures: Smoking quantity-frequency in the past 30 days. Results: Six distinct smoking trajectories were identified: nonsmokers, experimenters, stable light smokers, quitters, late escalators, and stable high smokers. Baseline risk factors that were associated with greater likelihood of membership in all of the smoking trajectory groups compared with nonsmokers included alcohol use, deviance, peer smoking, and (with the exception of the late escalators) drug use. Deviance, peer smoking, and alcohol and drug use also distinguished the likelihood of membership among several of the 5 smoking trajectory groups. Conclusion: The results add to basic etiologic research on developmental pathways of smoking in adolescence and young adulthood by providing evidence of heterogeneity in smoking behavior and prospectively linking different patterns of risk factors with the probability of trajectory group membership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomy, relatedness, and the initiation of health risk behaviors in early adolescence.

Examined the relationships among sociodemographic characteristics, family processes, and the initiation of health risk behaviors in early adolescence. Ss were 189 6th and 7th graders from a public middle school. A path-analytic model was used to analyze data. Results showed that students who received autonomy support from parents were less likely to initiate sexual intercourse. Students who were emotionally detached from their parents were more likely to fight and use substances. Those who were emotionally detached tended to come from families with low levels of cohesion and acceptance. Sociodemographic variables, such as family structure, gender, and ethnicity, had both direct and indirect effects on health risk behaviors, but the indirect effects were quite small. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of early cognitions on cigarette and alcohol use during adolescence.

The present study predicts cigarette and alcohol use in adolescence from the development of children's cognitions in the elementary years. Using latent growth modeling, the authors examined a model using data from 712 participants in the Oregon Youth Substance Use Project, who were in the 2nd through 5th grade at the 1st assessment and followed for 6 annual or semiannual assessments over 7 years. Growth in children's prototypes and subjective norms in the elementary years (Times 1 through 4) were related to their substance use in adolescence (Time 6) through their willingness and intentions (Time 5) to smoke and drink. Across the sample, for both substances, the intercept and slope of prototypes were either indirectly related to use through willingness or directly related to use. Both the intercept and slope of subjective norms were indirectly related to use of both substances through both willingness and intentions and directly related to cigarette use. Results suggest that elementary children have measurable cognitions regarding substance use that develop during the elementary years and predict use later in adolescence. These findings emphasize the need for prevention programs targeted at changing children's social images of substance users and encouraging more accurate perceptions of peers' use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family patterns of moral judgment during adolescence and early adulthood.

Family patterns of moral reasoning were compared in a cross-sectional sample from the Oakland Growth Study (H. E. Jones, 1939a, 1939b) and a longitudinal sample from L. Kohlberg's (1958) study of moral judgment development. The 221 offspring in the 2 samples (121 male and 100 female) ranged from 10 to 33 yrs old. Age, sex, cognitive stage, IQ, SES, and education were controlled in the data analyses. There were consistent family patterns of moral reasoning in the 2 samples when both sex and background variables were controlled. Developmental patterns indicated that, during adolescence, parent moral judgment was related to offspring moral reasoning but was a stronger predictor of moral judgment among girls than boys. During young adulthood, fathers' moral judgment and education were the strongest predictors of both sons' and daughters' moral reasoning. However, education, not parent moral reasoning, limited the moral stage attained by adult offspring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived family relationships and depressed mood in early and late adolescence: A comparison of European and Asian Americans.

This study examined perceived parent-adolescent relationships and depressed mood among 173 early adolescents and 297 college students, all of European or Asian American background. Ethnic differences in depressed mood, not evident in the early adolescent sample, emerged in the college sample, with Asian Americans reporting more symptoms. Ethnic differences in depressed mood were reduced to nonsignificance when quality of parent-adolescent relationships was statistically controlled. The magnitude of associations between measures of parent-adolescent relationships and depressed mood was strikingly similar for European and Asian Americans at the same phase of adolescence. As anticipated, perceived parent-adolescent relationships accounted for more of the variance in depressed mood in early adolescence than in late adolescence: 44% to 51% for the junior high samples and about 10% for the college samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between sports participation and self-esteem during early adolescence.

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the links between sports participation and self-esteem, with particular interest in the possible mediating role of physical self-esteem. The participants in this study were 382 students (167 boys; 215 girls) in Grades 5-8. Participants completed a series of paper and pencil measures, detailing their sports participation, as well as their self-perceptions concerning physical and general self-esteem. Sports participation was related to all indices of self-esteem and this was equally true for boys and girls. Two distinct but related factors were identified as components of physical self-esteem (Physical appearance and Physical competence), differentially associated with self-esteem for boys and girls. Results supported a mediational model, with physical self-esteem mediating the relationship between sports participation and general self-esteem. Significant sex differences were noted with regard to specific indices of physical self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)