Differences in Adolescents’ Alcohol Use and Smoking Behavior between Educational Tracks: Do Popularity Norms Matter?

Abstract

Explanations about differences in drinking and smoking rates between educational tracks have so far mainly focused on factors outside the classroom. The extent to which these behaviors are rewarded with popularity within a classroom—so called popularity norms—and their interaction with individual characteristics could explain the observed differences in risk behavior. 1860 adolescents (Mage = 13.04; 50% girls) from 81 different classrooms reported three times during one academic year about their own and their classmates behavior. Overall, in vocational tracks popularity norms for alcohol and smoking were more positive and predicted classroom differences in alcohol and smoking. Knowledge about classroom processes can advance the field in unraveling the functional aspects of risk behavior in adolescence. Preregistration: The hypotheses and the analytical plan of this study were preregistered under number #39136 (https://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=gx77p6).

Educational level and alcohol use in adolescence and early adulthood—The role of social causation and health-related selection—The TRAILS Study

“…Background characteristics were not able to explain this early escalation, pointing towards educational differences in social norms and peer group composition in the educational context. Interventions may aim to integrate adolescents’ social networks and popular peers in particular, who my act as key opinion leaders promoting good health behaviours [ 66 , 67 ]. Peer-led interventions have been shown to reduce adolescent alcohol use [ 68 ].…”

The Role of Empathy in Alcohol Use of Bullying Perpetrators and Victims: Lower Personal Empathic Distress Makes Male Perpetrators of Bullying More Vulnerable to Alcohol Use

“…Some limitations of the current study should be mentioned. We did not control for possible confounders like general drinking motives [8], socioeconomic status variables like educational level or household income [56][57][58][59][60], cultural background [61], personality facets [62,63], popularity [64,65] or other forms of peer victimization [66]. Taking all these contributing factors into account, future studies might benefit from a comprehensive approach and complex analyses like structural equation modeling.…”

Does defending affect adolescents' peer status, or vice versa? Testing the moderating effects of empathy, gender, and anti‐bullying norms

“…Popularity was assessed across the three waves using a peer‐nominated question: “who are the most popular?” (cf. Peeters et al, 2021). Students could nominate an unlimited number of classmates.…”