Peer network drinking predicts increased alcohol use from adolescence to early adulthood after controlling for genetic and shared environmental selection.

Abstract

Research consistently links adolescents' and young adults' drinking with their peers' alcohol intake. In interpreting this correlation, 2 essential questions are often overlooked. First, which peers are more important, best friends or broader social networks? Second, do peers cause increased drinking, or do young people select friends whose drinking habits match their own? The present study combines social network analyses with family (twin and sibling) designs to answer these questions via data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Analysis of peer nomination data from 134 schools (n = 82,629) and 1,846 twin and sibling pairs shows that peer network substance use predicts changes in drinking from adolescence into young adult life even after controlling for genetic and shared environmental selection, as well as best friend substance use. This effect was particularly strong for high-intensity friendships. Although the peer-adolescent drinking correlation is partially explained by selection, the present finding offers powerful evidence that peers also cause increased drinking.

Early Risk Factors for Alcohol Use Across High School and Its Covariation With Deviant Friends

“…Consistent with other research (e.g., Barnes et al, 2006), adolescent drinking and deviant friends were associated across adolescence. Whereas most studies examine deviant peers as a predictor of alcohol use (Cruz et al, 2012;Duncan et al, 2006;Trucco et al, 2011;van der Vorst et al, 2009), we took a novel approach, examining how these behaviors covaried over time, and found that for most individuals the two were tightly linked. However, these effects were not universal: those low in childhood disinhibition and parental alcohol use were less likely to demonstrate tightly coupled drinking and deviant-friend affiliation across adolescence than same-age peers.…”

“…A few studies have considered the infl uence of peer deviance on adolescent alcohol use trajectories, with peer effects measured at either single (Cruz et al, 2012;Feldman et al, 2009;van der Vorst et al, 2009) or co-occurring longitudinal assessments (Martino et al, 2009;Wiesner et al, 2008). For example, one study found that, compared with stable low affi liation with peers who drink, a pattern of steadily increasing affi liation predicted greater likelihood of higher-risk drinking trajectories, and stable high affi liation with drinking peers was strongly associated with stable heavy drinking from age 14 to 19 years (Martino et al, 2009).…”

“…Previous research has associated negative health outcomes with adolescent alcohol use trajectories (Danielsson et al, 2010;Hill et al, 2000), but more work is needed to examine individual and family risk factors in childhood-and their interactions-as predictors of growth in alcohol consumption across adolescence. Furthermore, given the well-established association between drinking and deviant, alcohol-using friends during adolescence (Cruz et al, 2012;Martino et al, 2009), examination of early risk factors infl uencing this association over time is needed to understand these important risk processes.…”

Association Between Social Network Communities and Health Behavior: An Observational Sociocentric Network Study of Latrine Ownership in Rural India

“…12 Medicine and public health have a rich tradition of efforts to change norms and hence move individuals and communities toward better health. 5,13,14 However, a key task of interventions seeking to do this is to identify the valid community or "reference group" for each individual in the population of interest. Normative change hinges on the fact that the individuals involved place a value on the expectations of those with whom they share social connections.…”

Beziehungen zu Gleichaltrigen

“…Jugendliche mit ähnli-chen genetisch angelegten Temperamentsmerkmalen etwa hinsichtlich des Risikoverhaltens könnten sich sowohl zueinander als auch zu Alkohol oder Drogen hingezogen fühlen (Dick et al 2007;Hill et al 2008). So können der Alkohol-und Drogenmissbrauch von Freunden ebenso aufgrund ihrer genetischen Ähnlichkeiten korreliert sein wie aufgrund ihrer Sozialisationserfahrungen, auch wenn der Gruppendruck der Freunde beim jugendlichen Trinken nicht ausschließlich genetisch bedingt ist (Cruz et al 2012).…”