Poster #231 - Susceptibility to Peer Influence During Middle School: Links with Social Support, Peer Harassment, and Gender

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Peer relationships are an important part of adolescent development. Positive peer relationships are associated with healthy social, academic, and psychological outcomes, whereas struggles in the peer domain predict social, academic, and psychological risk. Some youth demonstrate willingness to follow along with peers even when they know that this is not what they should be doing. Adolescents who are relatively susceptible to peer influence are at a higher risk for substance use, delinquency, and mental health concerns. It is not yet established, though, whether peer susceptibility is associated with relational aggression and sexual harassment. This is unfortunate, given the deleterious outcomes associated with these behaviors.

Methods
The present study focuses on associations between social support, peer susceptibility, and peer harassment (relational aggression and sexual harassment). Participants were 774 students from a racially/ethnically and economically diverse public middle school in a mixed urban/suburban district in the northeastern US (Mage = 12.78 years; 47.4% male; 28.5% Latino/a; 23.5% European American/White; 19.3% mixed /multi-racial/ethnic background; 14.9% African American/Black; 6.3% Asian American/Asian).
Data collection took place in school during regular school hours; 83% of the student body participated. Students answered questions about the following constructs: Family connection and support; School connection and support; Peer influence susceptibility; Perceptions of friends’ peer influence susceptibility; Relational aggression; Relational victimization; Sexual harassment and Sexual harassment victimization.

Results
Preliminary analysis involved computing descriptive statistics, examining gender differences, and computing bivariate associations. Full information will be presented in the poster. One finding of note was that with regard to victimization, girls were victimized more often by sexual harassment (p < .001) and by relational aggression (p < .05).

OLS regression analyses were computed to examine associations between family and school support and susceptibility to peer influence (full information will be provided in the poster). These analyses showed that social support was associated with susceptibility to peer influence (ps < .001), as well as friends’ susceptibility (ps < .01). Adolescents perceiving more support were less susceptible to peer influence, and had friends who were less susceptible. Partial gender moderation was found; the negative association of school support with susceptibility to peer influence was significant in girls (p < .001) but not boys.

The final analyses, OLS regressions, focused on associations between peer orientation and peer harassment, also testing gender moderation (see Tables 1 and 2). Results showed that adolescents who were more highly susceptible to peer influence were more heavily involved with both forms of aggression. The positive relations between peer influence and relational aggression, as well as sexual harassment, were greater in girls. A similar pattern of results emerged with regard to friends’ susceptibility to peer influence.

Discussion/Conclusion
The current findings suggest that when adolescents feel supported by their families or schools, they are less likely to be highly susceptible to peer influence, or to associate with friends who succumb to peer influence. These results highlight the importance of developmentally appropriate support from parents and schools during early adolescence. Further implications, ideas for future research will be discussed in the poster.

Authors

• Sara Goldstein, Montclair State University
  Presenting Author

• Chih-Yuan Steven Lee, Montclair State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Gunn, Montclair State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shaniqua Bradley, Montclair State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shannon Lummer, Montclair State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paul Boxer, Rutgers University
  Non-Presenting Author