The extent and effects of peer pressure among high school students: A retrospective analysis

Although people assume that peer pressure is an influential component of adolescent development, few empirical studies have investigated the nature and extent of its influence. Using retrospective accounts from 297 college undergraduates, the present study assessed how much pressure peers exerted in numerous areas of high school life and how this pressure influenced teenagers' attitudes and behaviors. One-third of both genders identified peer pressure as one of the hardest things they had to face as a teenager. Generally, however, peer pressure appeared stronger for females than males, and the genders disagreed about the areas in which pressure was strongest. Perceptions of peer pressure were significantly associated with dating attitudes, sexual activity, and use of drugs and alcohol, but not with relationships with parents. The findings suggested that adolescents may be their own worst enemy in any attempt to break away from gender-stereotypic attitudes and behavior.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Committee on Human Development. Research interests include effects of peer and confidant relationships on adolescents' identity development and ability to cope with stressful life changes.     

Reexamining Racial Attitudes: The Conditional Relationship Between Diversity and Socioeconomic Environment

Social science research notes that racial context is related to attitudes toward social issues; however, surprisingly little research has examined how the impact of racial context on attitudes is activated. The aim of this article is to examine racial context "effects" for policy preferences, but to do so within a broader perspective. This article extends the literature on racial attitudes by considering a conditional relationship between racial and ethnic context and socioeconomic context and expanding racial context to include multiple racial and ethnic groups. The findings indicate that racial and ethnic contextual effects do emerge; however, these effects are conditional on the socioeconomic context in which an individual resides. Specifically, high socioeconomic contexts and highly diverse contexts are related to higher levels of support for racial social issues; however, contexts characterized by low socioeconomic context and high racial and ethnic diversity are associated with lower levels of support for such issues .     

Endogenous elections,electoral budget cycles and Canadian provincial governments

The existence of manipulative electoral budget cycles and opportunistic election setting is examined in the framework of a parliamentary democracy. Empirical tests are conducted using a pooled time series cross section data set derived from Canadian provincial governments over the 1962–1992 period. Evidence in support of the electoral budget cycle hypothesis but not the opportunistic election timing hypothesis is obtained.     

Online Pursuit in the Twilight Zone: Cyberstalking Perpetration by College Students

The author provides one of the first empirical examinations of cyberstalking perpetration. The extent and nature of cyberstalking are investigated using a sample of college students from a large university in the Midwest. The results indicate that cyberstalking was perpetrated by 4.9% of research participants. In addition, the findings suggest that persons with low self-control are significantly more likely than their peers to perpetrate cyberstalking. Those who participated in sexting were also more likely to engage in cyberstalking. However, these variable effects differed by sex. In particular, women with low self-control were at higher risk of perpetrating cyberstalking, while low self-control did not affect offending risk for men. These results speak to the potentially gendered nature of cyberstalking, while at the same time finding that the prevalence of offending was essentially the same for men and women.     

Primary Attachment to Parents and Peers during Adolescence: Differences by Attachment Style

This study examines the nature of adolescent attachment to parents and peers during adolescence. A projective measure was used to classify 99 11th and 12th grade students into secure, insecure dismissing, and insecure preoccupied attachment groups. Respondents identified their primary attachment figure by nomination and by rating the level of attachment support they received from mothers, fathers, best friends, and boy/girlfriends. On average, parents and peers were equally likely to be identified as primary attachment figures but individual preference was strongly tied to attachment style. Secure adolescents significantly favored mothers over best friends, boy/girlfriends, and fathers. Although secure adolescents with romantic partners rated mothers lower on attachment support, none of the adolescents from this group nominated a boy/girlfriend as their primary attachment figure. In contrast insecure adolescents indicated a strong preference for boy/girlfriends and best friends as their primary target for attachment and nearly a third of dismissing adolescents identified themselves as their primary attachment figure. Findings are discussed in terms of individual differences in attachment during adolescence.