Investigates the effect of cooperative learning environments on conformity among 190 boys in the third and fourth grades. Findings support the view that qualitative asspects of the experience children have with peers influences children's likelihood of conforming. The more positive the experience, the more likely children are to conform. (RH)

Econometric estimations using Bradford Youth Cohort data investigated influences on intention to continue education after age 16. Fixed effects nominal logit regression analyses identified significant effects of school quality, teachers' advice, work experience, neighborhood income, and ability. (Contains 37 references.) (SK)

Assesses the relative effects of parents and peers on adolescent alcohol use via mechanisms of attachment and opportunity. Results indicated that peers are more influential than parents in shaping adolescents' patterns of alcohol consumption and that unstructured peer interaction is an especially powerful predictor of adolescent alcohol use and…

Examines the degree to which children's achievement-related beliefs could be predicted from their friends' beliefs. Friends showed consistent, albeit modest similarities with regards to their self-perception of competence, academic standards, and importance of meeting standards, and preference for challenge. Friends appeared influential with…

Examined associations between access to cigarettes and trial use of cigarettes. Early adolescents completed two smoking surveys 1 year apart. Trial smoking at time 2 was predicted from time 1 cigarette availability variables. Offers from friends/classmates were a significant cross-sectional predictor. Greater perceptions of ease of obtaining…

Describes the effect of peer influence, a more subtle form of peer pressure, on adolescent behavior. Suggests three ways principals can intervene to make peer influence a positive force in the school: Provide positive information, involve all students, and group students differently. (PKP)

This study examined the relationship between deviant friendships and substance use from early adolescence (age 13-14) to young adulthood (age 22-23). Multivariate modeling revealed that substance use in young adulthood is a joint outcome of friendship influences and selection processes. Substance use appears to affect friend selection in late…

Study assessed extent to which peer-influence vulnerability moderates the relationship between campus drinking norms and undergraduates' alcohol use, using the Attention to Social Comparison Information subscale. Students high in attention to social comparison information who believed others were frequent, heavy users of alcohol reported highest…

Study assessed the influence of group membership on the use of multiple substances among adolescents. Organized group activity included clubs and organizations, as well as athletic participation. Multiple substance included current use of any combination of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. Group participation had a buffering effect on multiple…

Study assessed relative influence of perceived level of support for adolescent's alcohol use by best friends, most students in school, live-in parents/guardians, and adults in neighborhood/community. Findings revealed some differences by sex and grade level, and the different kinds of drinking behavior. Prevention programs including all four…

Study tests two hypotheses of parent-peer conflict and the parent-peer linkages. The situational hypothesis predicts that parental attachment will be associated with school identity and peer attachment with relational identity. The parent-peer linkages hypothesis suggests that parental attachment influences peer attachment. Findings offer strong…

Used data from a statewide sample of 5,870 eighth graders in California to examine the correlates of smoking prevalence estimates. Best friends' smoking accounted for the largest proportion of the variance in prevalence estimates. Smoking by peers may give adolescents the impression that smoking is more normative and prevalent than it actually is.…

Investigated gender differences in adolescent drug use in terms of parental monitoring and peer deviance. Surveys of Swedish adolescents indicated that girls were more highly monitored than boys, and boys were more exposed to deviant peers than girls. There was a significant interaction for parental monitoring and peer deviance for the sample as a…

Presents evidence supportive of the conclusion that teacher and classroom practices can over-ride the effect of the "input mix"--the social and academic backgrounds of one's fellow students. Reviews evidence that teacher practices moderate the impact of the input mix on student learning and behavior and presents evidence that authoritative…

Reports estimates of peer effects on student achievement, using a 1997 census of eighth-grade achievement in Chile. The data allow detailed measures of peer characteristics to be constructed for each classroom within a school. Estimates suggest that the classroom mean of mothers' education is an important determinant of individual achievement,…