Peer effects in weight-related behaviours of young people: A systematic literature review.

Individual preferences and beliefs are perpetually shaped by environmental influences, with peers playing a key role in this dynamic process. Compelling evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies has highlighted the significant impact of peer influence on health-related decisions. This systematic literature review critically synthesises findings from 45 studies published between 2011 and 2022, providing a comprehensive understanding of the nature of peer effects on dietary, physical activity and sleep behaviours during youth. The majority of studies indicated that social norms drive directional changes in eating and physical activity. Yet, our analysis revealed a notable gap in exploring alternative mechanisms, including social comparison and social identity, despite their potential relevance. Studies, generally classified as moderate to high quality, predominantly relied on self-reported data, potentially affecting the validity and reliability of measures. Meta-regression analyses suggest a small, but significant association of sample size with the magnitude, sign and significance of the reported peer effects. Moreover, studies focusing on physical activity are more likely to report significant outcomes, whereas findings on peer influence on sleep-related studies tend to reveal less pronounced effects, compared to studies on dietary behaviours. Experimental designs do not appear to increase the likelihood of finding significant effects when compared to other study designs. In conclusion, this synthesis emphasises the need for further research into the underlying mechanisms on peer effects to better inform policy-makers in designing effective policies for improving weight-related behaviours in young people.

Promote to protect: data-driven computational model of peer influence for vaccine perception.

Vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, driven by social influence, is usually explored by most researchers using exhaustive survey-based studies, which investigate public preferences, fundamental values, beliefs, barriers, and drivers through closed or open-ended questionnaires. Commonly used simple statistical tools do not do justice to the richness of this data. Considering the gradual development of vaccine acceptance in a society driven by multiple local/global factors as a compartmental contagion process, we propose a novel methodology where drivers and barriers of these dynamics are detected from survey participants' responses, instead of heuristic arguments. Applying rigorous natural language processing analysis to the survey responses of participants from India, who are from various socio-demographics, education, and perceptions, we identify and categorize the most important factors as well as interactions among people of different perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines. With a goal to achieve improvement in vaccine perception, we also analyze the resultant behavioral transitions through platforms of unsupervised machine learning and natural language processing to derive a compartmental contagion model from the data. Analysis of the model shows that positive peer influence plays a very important role and causes a bifurcation in the system that reflects threshold-sensitive dynamics.

Shaping Citizenship in the Classroom: Peer Influences on Moral Disengagement, Social Goals, and a Sense of Peer Community.

Despite the important role of peers in the social process of classroom citizenship, the peer influence related to moral disengagement, social goals, and a sense of peer community remain unclear. To this end, it was examined to what extent youth become similar to their friends in moral disengagement, social goals, and a sense of peer community. Participants were 283 South Korean third to sixth graders (Mage = 9.60 years, SD = 0.97; 51.6% girls) who completed an online survey for moral disengagement, social goals, the sense of peer community and friendship network across the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the school semester (September to December). Longitudinal social network analyses indicated that youth became more similar to their friends concerning moral disengagement and a sense of peer community, but did not select friends based on these aspects. The strength of these influence effects varied in terms of different levels of these aspects. Specifically, youth were more likely to become similar to their friends at lower levels of moral disengagement. Youth tended to be similar to the friends' level of sense of peer community. This tendency was relatively strong at the lowest and the highest levels of a sense of peer community. Future research should address the role of friendship in shaping classroom citizenship and the importance of classroom daily teaching practice in youth citizenship development.

Peer Influences on (Dis)Engagement in Early Adolescence: the Role of Friendship, Social Status, and Academic Status.

Academic engagement in adolescence is shaped by influences from the peer environment, yet the types of peers impacting engagement remain unclear. This study explores the roles of friends, popular students, and intelligent students in shaping peers' behavioral and emotional (dis)engagement. Data were analyzed from 3409 Flemish eighth-grade students (Mage = 13.48 years, SD = 0.46, 50.09% female), utilizing self-reports and peer nominations to measure (dis)engagement and map friendship, popularity, and intelligence networks in the fall and spring. Longitudinal network analysis revealed that, while accounting for selection and network structure, friends influenced all dimensions of engagement. Popular students influenced emotional disengagement, and intelligent students impacted emotional engagement. These findings underscore the intricate nature of peer dynamics, highlighting the need for a multidimensional approach to studying peer influences on engagement.

Peer Pressure and Risk-Taking Behaviors Among Adolescent Girls in a Region Impacted by HIV/AIDS in Southwestern Uganda.

PURPOSE: This paper uses data from a 3-arm Cluster Randomized Control Trial, Suubi4Her (N = 1260; 14-17-year-old school-going girls) to (1) assess the relationship between peer pressure and adolescent risk-taking behaviors; and (2) test the mediating effect of peer pressure on an intervention on adolescent risk-taking behaviors. METHODS: Students in the southwestern region of Uganda were assigned to three study arms: control (n = 16 schools, n = 408 students) receiving usual care comprising of sexual and reproductive health curriculum; and two active treatment arms: Treatment 1 (n = 16 schools, n = 471 students) received everything the control arm received plus a savings led intervention. Treatment 2 (n = 15 schools, n = 381 students) received everything the control and treatment arms received plus a family strengthening intervention. We used multilevel models to assess the relationship between peer pressure and risk-taking behaviors. We ran structural equation models for mediation analysis. RESULTS: Using baseline data, we found that direct peer pressure was significantly associated with substance use risk behaviors, (ß = 0.044, 95% CI = 0.008, 0.079). We also found a statistically significant effect of the intervention on acquiring STIs through the mediating effect of sexual risk-taking significant (ß = -0.025, 95% CI: -0.049, -0.001, p = .045) and total indirect (ß = -0.042, 95% CI: -0.081, -0.002, p = .037) effects. Also, there was a significant mediation effect of the intervention on substance use through peer pressure (ß = -0.030, 95% CI: -0.057, -0.002, p = .033). DISCUSSION: Overall, the study points to the role of peer pressure on adolescent girls' risk-taking behaviors; and a need to address peer pressure at an early stage.

Health-risk behaviors and peer pressure of adolescents in the child protective services in Türkiye: A cross-sectional study.

PROBLEM: This study was carried out to investigate the health-risk behaviors and peer pressure of adolescents aged 12-18 years in need of protection at child protective services. METHODS: The data of this cross-sectional study were collected using individual interviews with 85 adolescents living in child homes and child homes buildings complex between February 25 and May 31, 2019. The data were collected using the "Descriptive Information Form," the "Health-Risk Behaviors Questionnaire," and the "Peer Pressure Questionnaire." FINDINGS: The results of study in adolescents were 34.1% were in the risk group in terms of weight, and 41.2% had a psychiatric problem. Among the health-risk behaviors of adolescents; 56.5% did not pay attention to daily nutrition, 51.8% had fast food every day, 54.1% injury behaviors were doing dangerous sports, only 15.3% wore seat belts, 78.8% did not exercise three or more days per week, 38.8% watched television and computer three or more hours per day, 27.1% used painkillers without consulting a doctor, 24.7% applied the health recommendations they read on the internet, 20.0% of the adolescents reported that they went on a diet without consulting the healthcare personnel, and 14.1% voluntary vomited to lose or maintain their weight. And 21.2% of the adolescents were exposed to peer pressure. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that adolescents in need of protection at child protective services have health-risk behaviors and low-level peer pressure.

Investigating psychological distress and peer influence in the longitudinal path linking food insecurity to adolescent substance use: a nationwide low-income cohort study.

Food insecurity (FI), defined as the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, remains a major life concern among many poor subpopulations. Few investigations have been made into the mechanism underlying its impact on adolescent substance use. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between FI and cigarette and alcohol use among economically disadvantaged adolescents and then explore the role of psychological distress and peer substance use in the aforementioned association. Data of 1,243 adolescents (Mage = 13.3 years; 645 males) were obtained from a nationwide cohort study on Taiwanese adolescents from low-income families. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses based on generalized linear mixed-effects models with binomial distribution found that FI was consistently associated with cigarette smoking (ß = 0.458, p < 0.001) but not alcohol drinking (ß = 0.142, p = 0.143) when both psychological distress and peer substance use were adjusted. In the moderated mediation analysis based on bootstrap methods, we observed that psychological distress mediated the association between food insecurity and alcohol drinking (ß = 0.036, 95% CI = 0.015-0.063) but not cigarette smoking (ß = 0.018, 95% CI =-0.001-0.037). Furthermore, the indirect effects varied by peer drinking status (index of moderated mediation = 0.04, 95% CI 0.015-0.072). Clinical and public health attention should be given to evaluating food-insecure adolescents' psychological well-being and peer influence when counseling their substance use issues.

Under pressure: The paradox of autonomy and social norms in drug education.

Much contemporary youth drug education operates from the assumption that young people's decisions to use alcohol and other drugs often stem from a misunderstanding that youth consumption is so common as to constitute a 'social norm'. Known as the 'social norms' approach, the stated aim of this form of drug education is to empower young people to avoid consumption by constituting it as uncommon and, therefore, abnormal. Taking the relationship between autonomy and norms as my primary concern, I examine key assumptions of the social norms approach through an analysis of a dataset of 23 'evidence-based' drug education texts currently recommended for use in Australian secondary schools. Drawing on Rasmussen's (2011) analysis of autonomy as a 'paradox' in which young people are compelled to demonstrate their autonomy by submitting to external authority, I argue that drug education constitutes young people's (lack of) autonomy as the key cause of and solution to youth drug use through three strategies: (1) decision-making exercises that position consumption as the result of an inability to make the rational choice; (2) activities that equate drug consumption with succumbing to peer pressure and failing to demonstrate autonomy; and (3) deployment of population level data on youth drug use that constitutes it as atypical. Together these strategies suggest that while drug education often purports to empower young people to make empowered decisions, it operates as a broader social intervention that seeks to produce compliant rather than autonomous subjects.

Relações de amizade nos transtornos alimentares: revisão integrativa da literatura / Friendship relationships in eating disorders: an integrative literature review / Relaciones de amistad en los trastornos alimentarios: revisión integradora

Ainda é desconhecido o papel da amizade enquanto constitutiva da rede de apoio social nos transtornos alimentares (TAs). Esta revisão integrativa teve por objetivo analisar a produção científica sobre relações de amizade em pessoas com TAs. Foram consultadas as bases PubMed/MEDLINE, LILACS, PsycINFO, Web of Science e EMBASE, de 2010 a 2020. Dos 1126 artigos recuperados, 15 preencheram os critérios de elegibilidade. A maioria tem abordagem qualitativa e delineamento transversal, sem indicar referencial teórico. Aspectos qualitativos das relações de amizade foram associados com redução da frequência e intensidade de sintomas quando o vínculo era considerado de boa qualidade. Já amizades que envolviam comentários depreciativos e influências negativas acerca do corpo e hábitos alimentares foram considerados fatores de risco para desencadeamento dos transtornos. Investir na qualidade dos relacionamentos entre pares pode contribuir para fortalecer a rede de proteção social e reduzir a vulnerabilidade psicossocial de adolescentes com risco para desenvolver TAs. (AU)

There is still little knowledge about the role of friendship within the social support network in eating disorders (EDs). This integrative review aimed to analyze the scientific production about friendship relationships in people with EDs. The literature review was conducted using the PubMed/MEDLINE, LILACS, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases in the period from 2010 to 2020. Among the 1126 articles retrieved, 15 met the eligibility criteria, most with a qualitative approach and cross-sectional design, without indicating a theoretical framework. The qualitative aspects of friendship were associated with a reduced frequency and intensity of symptoms when the bond was considered to be of good quality. On the other hand, friendships that involved derogatory comments and negative influences related to body image and eating habits emerged as potential risk factors for triggering disorders. Investing in the quality of peer relationships can contribute to strengthening the social safety net and reducing the psychosocial vulnerability of adolescents at higher risk for developing EDs. (AU)

El papel de la amistad como constitutiva de la red de apoyo social en los trastornos alimentarios (TAs) es aún desconocido. Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la producción científica sobre las relaciones de amistad en personas con TAs. Se consultaron las bases PubMed/MEDLINE, LILACS, PsycINFO, Web of Science e EMBASE, entre 2010 y 2020. De los 1126 artículos recuperados, 15 cumplían los criterios de elegibilidad. La mayoría tiene enfoque cualitativo y diseño transversal, sin indicar el marco teórico. Los aspectos cualitativos de las relaciones de amistad se asociaron con una menor frecuencia/intensidad de los síntomas cuando el vínculo se consideraba de buena calidad. Amistades que implicaban comentarios despectivos e influencias negativas sobre el cuerpo y los hábitos alimentarios se consideraron factores de riesgo. Invertir en la calidad de las relaciones entre pares puede contribuir a reforzar la red de protección social y reducir la vulnerabilidad de adolescentes con riesgo de desarrollar TAs. (AU)

Mutual pathways between peer and own e-cigarette use among youth in the United States: a cross-lagged model.

BACKGROUND: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have become the most common tobacco product used among adolescents in the United States (US). Prior research has shown that peer e-cigarette use was associated with increased risk of own e-cigarette use. Nonetheless, there is little empirical evidence on the directionality of these associations-if peer use predicts own use (peer influence) or if own use predicts peer use (peer selection). METHODS: We estimated the association between peer and own e-cigarette use among US adolescents 12-17 years of age. We used the cross-lagged model to investigate the mutual relationship between peer and own e-cigarette use over time using data from a population-based longitudinal study, Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health. Stratified analyses were conducted by sex and age subgroups. RESULTS: Results from a cross-lagged model showed a statistically significant predicting path leading from peer use at the prior time point to own use at the following time point, but not vice versa. CONCLUSIONS: We found strong relationships between peer e-cigarette use and own e-cigarette use at within-individual levels. Peer influence paths were more robust than peer selection paths for e-cigarette use. Incorporating peers into prevention and intervention programs may help enhance these strategies.

Prospective Pathways from Affect to Drug Outcomes: Refusal Self-Efficacy in the Context of Peer Influences.

Objective: Non-alcohol drug (NAD) use and its associated consequences remain a prevalent problem among young adults. Both positive and negative affect play etiological roles in NAD. The perception of one's ability to refuse a drug in different situations (drug refusal self-efficacy) could be an important mediator between such affect and NAD outcomes (use and consequences). This study examined mediational pathways from affect to NAD use and NAD-related consequences via drug refusal self-efficacy. We also examined the moderating role of normative perceptions of peer NAD involvement. Method: Across three time points (September, February, April) of their first college year, students (N = 355) completed an online self-report questionnaire to assess affect, refusal self-efficacy, NAD use frequency, NAD-related problems, and peer norms. Data were analyzed using longitudinal structural path models. Results: Refusal of self-efficacy for situations involving negative affect significantly mediated the relationship between negative affect and NAD use but not consequences, supporting a negative reinforcement pathway. Greater perceptions of peer drug use moderated the mediated negative reinforcement pathway. No significant pathways were found for the refusal self-efficacy positive reinforcement pathways. Conclusions: This study provides support for a negative reinforcement pathway to NAD use in which refusal self-efficacy plays an important mechanistic role. These findings may have implications for intervention, as targeting refusal self-efficacy for those with NAD use and addressing peer influences could be helpful in reducing NAD risk. Replication of these findings and extension using daily assessment and more fine-grained assessment of individual NAD types will be important next steps.

Adding Up Peer Beliefs: Experimental and Field Evidence on the Effect of Peer Influence on Math Performance.

We studied how gendered beliefs about intellectual abilities transmit through peers and differentially impact girls' academic performance relative to boys'. Study 1 (N = 8,029; 208 classrooms) exploited randomly assigned variation in the proportion of a child's middle school classmates who believe that boys are innately better than girls at learning math. An increase in exposure to peers who report this belief generated losses for girls and gains for boys in math performance. This peer exposure also increased children's likelihood of believing the gender-math stereotype, increased the perceived difficulty of math, and reduced aspirations among girls. Study 2 (N = 547) provided proof of concept that activating a gender-math performance gap among college students reduces women's math performance but not verbal performance. Men's task performance was not affected. Our findings highlight how the prevalence of stereotypical beliefs in one's ambient and peer environment, even when readily contradictable, can shape children's beliefs and academic ability.

The illusion of moral decline.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that people believe that morality is declining1,2. In a series of studies using both archival and original data (n = 12,492,983), we show that people in at least 60 nations around the world believe that morality is declining, that they have believed this for at least 70 years and that they attribute this decline both to the decreasing morality of individuals as they age and to the decreasing morality of successive generations. Next, we show that people's reports of the morality of their contemporaries have not declined over time, suggesting that the perception of moral decline is an illusion. Finally, we show how a simple mechanism based on two well-established psychological phenomena (biased exposure to information and biased memory for information) can produce an illusion of moral decline, and we report studies that confirm two of its predictions about the circumstances under which the perception of moral decline is attenuated, eliminated or reversed (that is, when respondents are asked about the morality of people they know well or people who lived before the respondent was born). Together, our studies show that the perception of moral decline is pervasive, perdurable, unfounded and easily produced. This illusion has implications for research on the misallocation of scarce resources3, the underuse of social support4 and social influence5.

Direct peer pressure may be a causal factor in mistaken-for-game hunting accidents.

INTRODUCTION: Mistaken-for-game or failure-to-identify hunting incidents refer to a hunter shooting an animal, often in haste, only to discover they have mistakenly targeted and shot a human. We sought to explore if individual differences, reaction times, peer or social pressure influence a decision to shoot quicker. METHOD: We conducted a computer-based test involving volunteer participants (n = 202). All participants were shown videos of approaching stag, in which they had to indicate the moment they would shoot. The independent variables involved peer pressure, social media or reaction 'influencers' added before each video. Participants were also requested to complete individual difference surveys. RESULTS: Direct peer pressure and quick reaction test conditions presented quicker shooting times, whereas social media increased shooting times. No associations with individual differences were found. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that hunters must ensure they minimise their distraction and influence from other people.

Dental aesthetic related popularity and peer pressure, a survey of adolescents in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVES: Most research has focused on determining how popularity and peer pressure impact behaviours, rather than identifying a key feature such as dental aesthetics and studying its impacts in relation to popularity and peer pressure. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted on a sample of 527 children from four schools located in Lahore, Pakistan. A 14-point questionnaire was developed, using existing measures of peer pressure, and popularity. The selected questions were modified to investigate the issues of dental aesthetics and integrated into the WHO oral health questionnaire for children. RESULTS: More than 50 % of the participants indicated popularity issues regarding dental aesthetics. 63.5 % of the responses indicated an influence of relatives and friends, whereas 38 % responses reported of harassment and bullying at schools. Regression analysis shows that the females were 1.99 times more likely to get comments from relative or friends about their teeth and 2.17 times more likely to be bullied or harassed at school due to their teeth when compared to the males. Fathers with a higher education brought about higher popularity and peer pressure issues. Mothers with a higher education were less likely to cause popularity and peer pressure issues than mothers with a lower education. Popularity and peer pressure were both significantly related to higher dental visitation. CONCLUSIONS: Popularity and peer pressure have a direct link to dental aesthetics in an individual and are impacted by gender, family relatives and parental influences. The area of popularity and peer pressure related to dental aesthetics can be targeted in health education programs to empower children to adopt better oral health behaviours.

Neural similarity in nucleus accumbens during decision-making for the self and a best friend: Links to adolescents' self-reported susceptibility to peer influence and risk taking.

Adolescence is marked by increased peer influence on risk taking; however, recent literature suggests enormous individual variation in peer influence susceptibility to risk-taking behaviors. The current study uses representation similarity analysis to test whether neural similarity between decision-making for self and peers (i.e., best friends) in a risky context is associated with individual differences in self-reported peer influence susceptibility and risky behaviors in adolescents. Adolescent participants (N = 166, Mage = 12.89) completed a neuroimaging task in which they made risky decisions to receive rewards for themselves, their best friend, and their parents. Adolescent participants self-reported peer influence susceptibility and engagement in risk-taking behaviors. We found that adolescents with greater similarity in nucleus accumbens (NACC) response patterns between the self and their best friend reported greater susceptibility to peer influence and increased risk-taking behaviors. However, neural similarity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was not significantly associated with adolescents' peer influence susceptibility and risk-taking behaviors. Further, when examining neural similarity between adolescents' self and their parent in the NACC and vmPFC, we did not find links to peer influence susceptibility and risk-taking behaviors. Together, our results suggest that greater similarity for self and friend in the NACC is associated with individual differences in adolescents' peer influence susceptibility and risk-taking behaviors.

Is Peer Influence Gender and Age Specific? Findings From a Sample of Justice-Involved Individuals.

Peer influence is generally understood to be one of the primary predictors of crime and delinquency. It is unclear, however, whether the mechanism that connects peer association, endorsement of deviant values, and delinquent behavior applies equally across different age and sex groups. This study examined age- and gender-specific susceptibility to delinquent and prosocial peer influence using a sample of justice-involved individuals. Based on multigroup structural equation modeling, the author found the nexus among peer association, endorsement of deviant values, and violent delinquency varied across gender and age groups. Among adult male respondents, delinquent peers strengthened deviant culture whereas prosocial peers inhibited that culture. Among juvenile respondents, deviant culture was not inhibited by relationships with prosocial peers. The results for adult females showed no significant influence by either delinquent or prosocial peers.

Relations between peer influence, perceived costs versus benefits, and sexual offending among adolescents aware of sex offender registration risk.

A policy's general deterrent effect requires would-be offenders to be aware of the policy, yet many adolescents do not know they could be registered as sex offenders, and even adolescents who do know may still commit registerable sexual offenses. We tested whether peer influences shape the perceived costs/benefits of certain sexual offenses and, subsequently, registration policy's general deterrent potential in a sample of policy-aware adolescents. The more adolescents believed their peers approve of sexting of nude images, the more likely they were to have sexted. For forcible touching, having more positive peer expectations about sex and perceiving forcible touching as more prevalent among peers related to adolescents' likelihood of engaging in that behavior. Perceiving registration as a possible consequence was unrelated to sexual offending. Findings highlight the nuanced roles peers play in adolescent sexual decision-making and support emerging evidence that juvenile registration policy has limited general deterrent efficacy.

Peer pressure and adolescent mobile social media addiction: Moderation analysis of self-esteem and self-concept clarity.

Background: Social media addiction has increasingly been a critical social problem. We explored the association between peer pressure on mobile phone use and adolescent mobile social media addiction and tested whether self-esteem and self-concept clarity could buffer the effect of peer pressure. Methods: 830 adolescents (M age = 14.480, SDage = 1.789) participated in our anonymous cross-sectional questionnaire study. Results: The results showed that peer pressure significantly predicted adolescent mobile social media addiction. Self-esteem moderated the effect of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction in that peer pressure had a weaker effect for adolescents with higher self-esteem. Self-concept clarity moderated the effect of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction in that peer pressure had a weaker effect for adolescents with higher self-esteem. The two moderators also interact in that the moderation of self-esteem was stronger for adolescents with higher self-concept clarity and the moderation of self-concept clarity for adolescents with higher self-esteem. Conclusion: The results highlight the critical role of self-esteem and self-concept clarity in buffering the impact of peer pressure on mobile social media addiction. The findings promote a better understanding of how to buffer the undesirable effect of peer pressure and reduce the risk of mobile social media addiction among adolescents.

The correlation between social media use, peer influence, and sexual behaviour among adolescents.

Objectives: To assess the correlation among social media use, peer influence and sexual risk behaviour among school going adolescents. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted from April to July 2022 after approval from the ethics review board of Stikes, Hang Tuah, Surabaya, Indonesia, and comprised grade 11 students of either gender at the Senior High School 1, Hang Tuah, Surabaya. Data was collected using social media and peer influence questionnaires. Data was analysed using SPSS version 23. RESULTS: Of the 134 participants, 79(59%) were males, and 91(67.9%) were aged 17 years. Highly frequent social media usage was reported by 81(60.4%) subjects, getting influenced by peers by 82(61.2%) and sexual risk behaviour by 88(65.7%). Social media usage and peer influence were significantly associated with sexual behaviour (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A significant relationship was noted of sexual behaviour with social media usage and peer influence.