Gender Differences in Peer Influence and Friend Selection for Adolescent Delinquency, Drinking, and Smoking
Open Access
- Author:
- Mc Millan, Cassandra Leigh
- Graduate Program:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- April 22, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Diane Helen Felmlee, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- Selection
Influence
Adolescents
Problem Behavior
Friendship Networks - Abstract:
- Previous research has confirmed that friend selection and peer influence concurrently explain why adolescents tend to exhibit similar problem behaviors as their friends. However, substantially less work has considered whether gender moderates these relationships. In this study, I examine whether the selection and influence processes regarding three specific problem behaviors (delinquency, drinking alcohol, and smoking tobacco) operate differently for adolescent girls and boys. I consider whether girls or boys are more likely to select friends with similar problem behaviors as their own and whether one gender is more prone to influence from their friends’ participation in such behaviors. Using SIENA software, I construct dynamic stochastic actor-based (SAB) models that are ideal for disentangling whether friends’ behavior similarity is the result of selection or influence processes. I apply these models to five waves of respondent-nominated friendship data on students who participated in the PROSPER peers study, yielding a sample of over 13,000 adolescents who attended sixth through ninth grade in one of 26 U.S. school districts. The sample includes respondents from two consecutive grade cohorts, resulting in 51 complete friendship networks. Findings suggest that the problem behavior of both girls and boys can be explained by friend selection and peer influence; however, for certain problem behaviors, girls’ experiences are particularly shaped by these processes. Compared to boys, the delinquent behavior of girls is more susceptible to influence from their friends and girls are more likely to select friends who have similar smoking behaviors as their own.