On the measurement of friend behavior in research on friend influence and selection: Findings from longitudinal studies of adolescent smoking and drinking

The principles that behavior is strongly influenced by the behavior of friends, and that people select each other to be friends on the basis of common characteristics, are based in large part on the many studies of adolescents that found the behavior of friends to be similar. In most of these studies, subjects were asked to describe, the behavior of their friends, and this information was then related to subjects' reports of their own behavior. The research on adolescent smoking and drinking described in this paper departs from that tradition by including friend reports of friend behavior so that results based on the different sources for measuring friend behavior can be compared. Subject report of friend behavior is a stronger correlate, of adolescent behavior than friend report of friend behavior, but the two sources for measuring friend behavior produce the same correlations with subject behavior when using longitudinal designs and controlling for prior subject behavior. The findings are discussed in the context of theoretical and methodological considerations of peer influence and selection.This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA04099) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA02480) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Received his Ph.D. from Florida State University. His research interests include adolescent health and evaluation research.Received her M.A. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include methodology and analyses in behavioral sciences and applied social and developmental psychology.     

Book reviews

Karl‐Eugen Wädekin, Sozialistische Agrarpolitik in Osteuropa. II. Entwicklung und Probleme. 1960–1976. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1978. 338 pp. DM62.

Peter Vanneman, The Supreme Soviet: Politics and the Legislative Process in the Soviet Political System. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1977. xii + 256 pp. $11.75.

I. S. Koropeckyj (ed.). The Ukraine within the USSR: An Economic Balance Sheet. New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Martin Robertson, 1977. xxi +316 pp. £14.85.

Dorothy Atkinson, Alexander Dallin, Gail Warshofsky Lapidus (eds.), Women in Russia. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester Press, 1978. viii+410 pp. £11.50.

J. Wilczynski, Comparative Monetary Economics. London: Macmillan, 1978. x + 270 pp. £12.00.

David Turnock, Eastern Europe Studies in Industrial Geography. Kent: Dawson Publishing/Westview Press, 1978. xi+273 pp. £9.50.

Edward Allworth (ed.), Nationality Group Survival in Multi‐Ethnic States: Shifting Support Patterns in the Soviet Baltic Region. New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Martin Robertson, 1977. xiv + 299 pp. £14.40.

Robert Conquest, Kolyma—the Arctic Death Camps. London: Macmillan, 1978. 256 pp. £6.95.

Vladimir G. Treml (ed.), Studies in Soviet Input‐Output Analysis. New York: Praeger Publishers, and London: Martin Robertson, 1977. xx + 448 pp.

Richard Hennessy, The Agrarian Question in Russia 1905–1907. The Inception of the Stolypin Reform. (Marburger Abhandlungen zur Geschichte und Kultur Osteuropas, Band 16.) Giessen: Wilhelm Schmitz Verlag, 1977. 203 pp.     

Relationships of Adolescents’ Perceptions of Parental and Peer Behaviors with Cigarette and Alcohol Use in Different Neighborhood Contexts

This study examined the relationships of adolescents’ perceptions of parental and peer behaviors with cigarette and alcohol use in different neighborhood contexts. The sample included 924 adolescents (49% boys, 51% girls) 12–14 years of age whose addresses were matched with 1990 census block groups. Six neighborhood types were identified through a cluster analysis. The findings suggest that parental smoking was associated with increased adolescent smoking in suburban white middle socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods. Peer smoking was associated with increased adolescent smoking in rural neighborhoods. Parental monitoring was associated with decreased adolescent drinking in urban white high-SES neighborhoods and parental drinking was associated with increased adolescent drinking in urban white middle-SES neighborhoods, respectively. Peer drinking was associated with increased adolescent drinking in urban neighborhoods. This study demonstrates the importance of examining parental and peer influences on adolescent smoking and drinking in different neighborhood contexts.     

Assimilation and enlightenment

He is a frequent contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, The Jewish Quarterly,and other journals. His most recent book is Modernity and the Holocaust.     

Examining Adolescent Suicidal Behaviors in Relation to Gun Carrying and Bullying

Guided by the interpersonal theory of suicide, this study examines the associations between gun carrying, bullying, and suicidal behaviors among high school students. Arizona Youth Risk Behavior Surveys were completed by 2,677 students in 2011; 9.0% reported suicide attempt in the past year, 5.5% carried a gun in the past 30 days, 8.5% were involved in school bullying, and 3.9% in cyberbullying. After accounting for depressive symptoms and self-harm, multiple linear regression results demonstrate that youth who carried a gun in the past 30 days were 3.98 times more likely to attempt suicide. Bullying was not associated with suicide attempt; however, youth report being 1.55 times more likely to make a suicide plan if they were bullied in school, 1.89 times more likely if cyberbullied, and .48 less likely if a cyberbully/victim. Results support the interpersonal theory of suicide; implications for school policies on gun carrying and bullying are discussed.