Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA.
Prev Sci. 2021 Jul;22(5):567-578. doi: 10.1007/s11121-021-01208-9. Epub 2021 Mar 11.
Friendships form an important context in which adolescents initiate and establish alcohol use patterns, but not all adolescents may be equally affected by this context. Therefore, this study tests whether parenting practices (i.e., parental discipline, parental knowledge, unsupervised time with peers) and individual beliefs (i.e., alcohol descriptive norms, positive social expectations, moral approval of alcohol use) moderate friend selection and influence around alcohol use. Stochastic actor-based models were used to analyze longitudinal social network and survey data from 12,335 adolescents (aged 11 to 17, 51.3% female) who were participating in the PROSPER project. A separate model was estimated for each moderating variable. Adolescents who reported consistent parental discipline, less unsupervised time with peers, higher descriptive alcohol use norms, and less positive social expectations about alcohol use were less likely to select alcohol-using friends. Those who reported consistent parental discipline, better parental knowledge, lower descriptive alcohol use norms, and less positive social expectations were more influenced by their friends' level of alcohol use. Thus, adolescents with these characteristics whose friends frequently use alcohol are at greater risk whereas those whose friends do not use alcohol are at lower risk of using alcohol. The findings show that, although selection and influence processes are connected, they may function in different ways for different groups of adolescents. For some adolescents, it is particularly important to prevent them from selecting alcohol-using friends, because they are more susceptible to influence from such friends. These peer network dynamics might explain how proximal outcomes targeted by many prevention programs (i.e., parenting practices and individual beliefs) translate into changes in alcohol use.
友谊是青少年开始和建立饮酒模式的一个重要环境，但并非所有青少年都会受到这种环境的同等影响。因此，本研究检验了父母教养实践（即父母管教、父母知识、与同龄人无人监督的时间）和个体信念（即酒精描述性规范、对酒精使用的积极社会期望、对酒精使用的道德认可）是否调节朋友选择并影响饮酒行为。使用随机主体模型分析了来自参与 PROSPER 项目的 12335 名青少年（年龄在 11 至 17 岁之间，51.3%为女性）的纵向社交网络和调查数据。为每个调节变量估计了一个单独的模型。报告父母管教一致、与同龄人无人监督的时间较少、描述性酒精使用规范较高、对酒精使用的积极社会期望较低的青少年不太可能选择饮酒的朋友。那些报告父母管教一致、父母知识更好、描述性酒精使用规范较低、对酒精使用的积极社会期望较低的青少年更容易受到朋友饮酒水平的影响。因此，具有这些特征的青少年，如果他们的朋友经常饮酒，他们使用酒精的风险更大，而那些朋友不饮酒的青少年使用酒精的风险较低。研究结果表明，尽管选择和影响过程是相互关联的，但它们可能对不同群体的青少年以不同的方式发挥作用。对于一些青少年来说，特别重要的是防止他们选择饮酒的朋友，因为他们更容易受到这些朋友的影响。这些同伴网络动态可能解释了许多预防计划针对的近端结果（即父母教养实践和个体信念）如何转化为饮酒行为的变化。
