Situational Peer Influence

• In Event: Peer Influence and Delinquency

Abstract

The literature on peer influence and adolescent delinquency is dominated by studies with long-term (social network) designs, focusing on long-term influence affecting behavior and attitudes. Little attention has been paid to peer influence that occurs instantaneously, even though abundant evidence indicates that adolescents are more likely to take risks, cheat, and use substances when peers are present. A project was conducted among Dutch adolescents, aged 15 to 18, in which they were asked to report retrospectively about situations where they either felt pressured by others to engage in certain behavior, or in which they tried to affect certain behavior of others. Attention is paid to influence toward negative behavior, such as delinquency and substance use, as well as to influence toward positive behavior, such as engagement in school, structured leisure activities, or strengthening social bonds. Findings of this project provide insight into tactics applied by adolescents to actively convince each other to engage in certain behaviors, motives for why they try to affect behavior of their peers, and motives for why they respond to such pressure. Challenges and suggestions are discussed for future studies aimed at further scrutinizing processes of situational influence.

Author

• Evelien Hoeben, University at Albany, SUNY