Effects Of Peer Pressure Research Articles

Influence of Peer Pressure and Self-Efficacy for Alcohol Self-Regulation on Chinese University Physical Education Students’ Drinking Behaviors

This study examined peer group influence on university student drinking in China and the indirect effects of peer pressure and self-efficacy for alcohol self-regulation. A total of 951 undergraduate university students (first, second and third year) from a university in central China completed questionnaires asking about perceived peer pressures, self-efficacy for alcohol self-regulation, and drinking frequency. Analysis of their answers showed that the drinking frequency among physical education (PE) students was higher than among the comparison group (History students). The PE students perceived greater peer pressure, and had lower self-efficacy for alcohol self-regulation, both of which contributed directly to drinking frequency. Path analysis indicated indirect effects of peer pressure and self-efficacy for alcohol self-regulation on the association between peer group membership and drinking frequency. This suggested that skills training to increase self-efficacy for alcohol self-regulation in culturally-specific settings have the potential to both directly and indirectly lower drinking rates in peer groups with high peer pressure and higher than normal drinking.

Parental Psychological Control and Peer Victimization among Chinese Adolescents: The Effect of Peer Pressure as a Mediator

Peer victimization is a serious problem among children and adolescents. Family and peers are two of the most proximal and influential microsystems for children. The present study examined the influence of parental psychological control and peer pressure on peer victimization. According to social learning theory and attachment theory, parent–child interactions may serve as a model of peer interactions. Therefore, we proposed the hypothesis that peer pressure functioned as a mediator in the association between parental psychological control and peer victimization. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of Chinese adolescents and examined whether this mediation model varied by gender. Participants were 2382 seventh grade students (1166 girls and 1216 boys) in Beijing, China. The results showed that both parental psychological control and peer pressure were positively associated with peer victimization in Chinese adolescents. Additionally, peer pressure partially mediated the effect of psychological control on peer victimization. Furthermore, multi-group comparisons showed that gender differences existed in the mediation model. The direct effect of psychological control on peer victimization was a little larger in boys, whereas the indirect effect was larger in girls. The findings suggest that parental psychological control contributes to peer victimization in non-Western culture as well. These findings also improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms involved in peer victimization by interrelating family and peer factors.

Gender and culture: do they matter for norms?

ABSTRACTIn a natural experiment, we observed that the influence of a norm depended upon the gender and cultural background of participants. Both gender and cultural background contributed to the effect of peer pressure that partly controlled against the act of cheating among participants as they completed a group task. Furthermore, both factors served to describe the characteristics of hardworking individuals in the group. We therefore conclude that the effectiveness of a norm in a group is expected to depend upon the presence of hardworking individuals therein.

PEER PRESSURE: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE FROM RESTROOM BEHAVIOR

We provide experimental evidence on the effect of peer pressure on individual behavior. Specifically, we study the effect of being exposed to an observer in a public restroom on handwashing and urinal flushing behavior. Our estimates show that being exposed to an observer increases the probability of handwashing by 13 percentage points and the probability of urinal flushing by 15 percentage points. Given that handwashing and urinal flushing have social benefits that exceed individual benefits, our findings provide support for peer pressure as an additional way of addressing the social suboptimality arising from externalities. (JEL C91, C93)

Peer pressure and risk taking in young drivers’ speeding behavior

Although many countermeasures have been implemented in Europe, young drivers continue to have a high rate of involvement in car crashes. Their crash rate is higher in presence of peer passengers than when driving alone. Peer presence could contribute toward explaining this involvement, especially regarding speeding. Peers are known to often influence young drivers’ risky behaviors through proximal (direct and indirect active pressures) and distal (passive pressure) forms of intervention (Allen & Brown, 2008). This present study examined the effect of peer pressure and peer risk taking on the estimated speeding behavior of a scenario driver (ESBSD) as well as on the estimated speeding intention of a scenario driver (ESISD). The scenario driver was the main character in an online-scenario based questionnaire regarding speeding. The main character is a fictional young male depicted driving with his best friends in all the experimental scenarios in which the variables type of pressure and peer risk taking were manipulated. One hundred and eighty young French drivers (18–25years, 50% men) took part in the study. The key findings were that (1) only direct and indirect active pressure, but not passive pressure, increased the ESBSD and that (2) high (vs. low) peer risk taking lead to a higher ESISD. However, no interaction between the pressure type and peer risk taking on ESBSD and ESISD was found. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Food, Health & Choices (FHC): How Perceptions of Maternal and Peer Energy Balance Behaviors Relate to Students’ Own Behaviors

Many health behavior theories implement social determinants, yet exactly how social factors influence energy balance-related behaviors (EBRBs) remains unclear. This study examines how children’s perceptions of others’ EBRBs compare to their own. Fifth grade students (n=215; 10.8y; 49.8% male) in four urban public schools participated in the delayed control FHC childhood obesity prevention curriculum and wellness policy intervention during the 2013-14 school year. Students completed an audience response system questionnaire pre- and post-intervention which measured their EBRBs and those perceived of their peers and mothers. General linear models were constructed (SPSS v20) to examine how children’s post-behaviors were explained by mothers’ and peers’ pre-behaviors, controlling for children’s own pre-behaviors and gender. Students’ higher perceptions of mothers’ vegetable intake was related to increased vegetable frequency post intervention (F=4.586, P=0.034). Also, perceptions of lower sweetened beverage intake by mothers resulted in lower post intervention intake of sweetened beverage (F=5.980, P=0.016). Similarly, positive perceptions of mothers’ behaviors led to longer bouts of moderate-vigorous activity (F=6.122, P=0.014) and less recreational screen time (F=8.689, P=0.004). Peers positively influenced fast food intake only (F=4.141, P=0.044). Children’s perceptions of mothers’ behaviors seemed to strongly influence both positive and negative EBRBs; those who were influenced by their mothers’ behaviors experienced an amplified effect of the FHC intervention. Upper elementary school children, while likely experiencing increased effects of peer pressure, still seem to be heavily influenced by perceptions of mothers’ EBRBs. Highlighting maternal influences is warranted in future obesity prevention studies.

Peer pressure: enhancement of cooperation through mutual punishment.

An open problem in evolutionary game dynamics is to understand the effect of peer pressure on cooperation in a quantitative manner. Peer pressure can be modeled by punishment, which has been proved to be an effective mechanism to sustain cooperation among selfish individuals. We investigate a symmetric punishment strategy, in which an individual will punish each neighbor if their strategies are different, and vice versa. Because of the symmetry in imposing the punishment, one might intuitively expect the strategy to have little effect on cooperation. Utilizing the prisoner's dilemma game as a prototypical model of interactions at the individual level, we find, through simulation and theoretical analysis, that proper punishment, when even symmetrically imposed on individuals, can enhance cooperation. Also, we find that the initial density of cooperators plays an important role in the evolution of cooperation driven by mutual punishment.

Effort provision in entrepreneurial teams: effects of team size, free-riding and peer pressure

This paper analyzes whether effort provision in entrepreneurial teams depends on the size of the team, assuming that size determines the strength of free-riding and peer pressure effects in entrepreneurial teams. We provide a theoretical model and empirical analyses to explain the joint effect of free-riding and peer pressure on effort in start-up teams. We begin with an economic model by Kandel and Lazear in J Polit Econ 100(4):801–817, (1992) and enrich it using insights from entrepreneurship research. Based on our model, we first hypothesize that with increasing team size in entrepreneurial teams, the efforts of the individual team founders should follow an inverted U-shaped pattern. Second, we argue that the peer pressure effect is stronger if team members have stronger social ties, and thus we expect the effort-maximizing team size to be larger in teams with stronger social ties. Using a data set from 214 German start-up teams, we find that our hypotheses are supported by the data.

From State to Market: Private Participation in China’s Urban Infrastructure Sectors, 1992–2008

Summary Public–private partnership (PPP) has gained popularity during the market-oriented reforms in China’s urban infrastructure sectors. This paper explores how city characteristics, spatial pressures, and other institutional forces condition the extent of liberalization reforms in local infrastructure markets. The findings advance the policy diffusion literature by suggesting that the different diffusion mechanisms not only function independently, but also moderate each other’s effects under certain conditions. Specifically, this research finds that the effects of peer pressure undermine the effects of spatial exposure, and the influence of provincial government reduces the effectiveness of peer pressure and epistemic influences.

Stability analysis of a giving up smoking model

In this paper we present and analyze a generalization of the giving up smoking model that was introduced by Sharomi and Gumel [4], in which quitting smoking can be temporary or permanent. In our model, we study a population with peer pressure effect on temporary quitters and we consider also the possibility of temporary quitters becoming permanent quitters and the impact of this transformation on the existence and stability of equilibrium points. Numerical results are given to support the results. Keywords: Smoking model, Smoking generation number, Local stability, Global stability, Second additive compound matrix, Liapunov function.

The Role of Peer Pressure, Automatic Thoughts and Self- Esteem on Adolescents’ Aggression

Problem Statement: Aggression is defined as any kind of behavior intended to hurt others. Aggression generally arises due to the interaction between individual (e.g., social and emotional difficulties, low self-esteem, peer rejection, academic failure) and environmental (e.g., poverty, lack of family supervision, limited social support, conflicts within the family) characteristics. Identifying the factors which cause aggressiveness in adolescents is vital to finding precautions against it. Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of peer pressure, automatic thoughts and self-esteem variables on the aggression levels of male and female adolescents. Methods: This is a relational and quantitative research aimed to examine the effects of peer pressure, automatic thoughts and self-esteem variables on the prediction of adolescents’ aggression levels. The study sample consisted of 411 volunteer students who were chosen through random sampling from a total of 720 9th grade students from various high schools in Antalya, Turkey. Participants completed the Aggression Questionnaire, Peer Pressure Scale, Automatic Thoughts Scale and Self-Esteem Scale in their classrooms during counseling sessions. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Findings and Results: In the hierarchical multiple regression analysis for female and male adolescents, it was found that peer pressure and

Smarter Grid Through Collective Intelligence: User Awareness for Enhanced Performance

Purpose – This paper examines the scenario of a university campus, and the impact on energy consumption of the awareness of building managers and users (lecturers, students and administrative staff). Design/methodology/approach – This study draws a comparison between direct fruition of the information by both skilled (building managers) and unskilled (users) recipients, and the effect of peer pressure and beneficial competition between users in applying the good practices. In fact, the usage of edutainment, implemented by the automatic publication on the Twitter platform of energy consumption data from different users, can promote general users’ awareness on best practices and their effect on energy consumption. In addition, the use of a social network platform allows the interaction between users, sharing experiences and increasing the collective intelligence in the energy efficiency field. Findings – Tests revealed that enhanced awareness helped managers to identify strategies that, if implemented in the whole building, could reduce energy consumption by about 6%. The tests on university users’ awareness hint that the expected energy savings can reach 9%, in addition to the previous 6%. In fact, the measures were implemented in one of the three common rooms, and at building level the total energy consumption decreased by 3.42%, proving that a large deal of energy can be saved by capillary actions targeting society at large. The emerging collective intelligence of the final users ends up having a stronger effect on energy saving than the actions of more educated professionals. Practical implications – The approach used in this paper moved the burden of evolving the energy saving strategies to new scenarios onto the collective intelligence of the users, by connecting the users – and their experiences in new scenarios – using a social network to provide guidelines to other users involved in the same decision processes. Originality/Value – The authors of the paper use social technologies (Twitter, graphical interfaces) for a social goal (promote user awareness on energy usage) for the benefit of the society (energy savings). Research type – research paper.

Adolescence: Challenges and responses

Adolescence: Challenges and responses

Peer Pressure and Thai Amateur Golfers’ Gambling on Their Games: The Mediating Effect of Golf Self-Efficacy

Our study hypothesizes that Thai amateur golfers gamble on their game because of peer pressure and their golf self-efficacy. To support our hypothesis, we conducted a study to examine the mediating effect of golf self-efficacy on the peer pressure-golf gambling relationship among 387 amateur golfers in Thailand. Peer pressure was operationally defined as fellow players' influence on the individual golfer to gamble; golf self-efficacy as the judgment of the golfer's skills to play golf; and golf gambling as the frequency and amounts of gambling. Regression analysis with bootstrapping was used to test the mediation effect of golf self-efficacy on the peer pressure-golf gambling relationship. The results support our hypothesis; peer pressure predicted golf gambling, and the indirect effect of peer pressure to golf gambling through the mediation of golf self-efficacy was significant. The results support the influence of peer pressure on gambling, and the social cognitive theory reciprocal relationship model.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of peer pressure to change disposition decisions and patient throughput by emergency physician

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to develop a strategy for imposing peer pressure on emergency physicians to discharge patients and to evaluate patient throughput before and after intervention. MethodsA before-and-after study was conducted in a medical center with more than 120 000 annual emergency department (ED) visits. All nontraumatic adult patients who presented to the ED between 7:30 and 11:30 am Wednesday to Sunday were reviewed. We created a “team norm” imposed peer-pressure effect by announcing the patient discharge rate of each emergency physician through monthly e-mail reminders. Emergency department length of stay (LOS) and 8-hour (the end of shift) and final disposition of patients before (June 1, 2011–September 30, 2011) and after (October 1, 2011–January 30, 2012) intervention were compared. ResultsPatients enrolled before and after intervention totaled 3305 and 2945. No differences existed for age, sex, or average number of patient visits per shift. The 8-hour discharge rate increased significantly for all patients (53.5% vs 48.2%, P < .001), particularly for triage level III patients (odds ratio, 1.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-1.38) after intervention and without corresponding differences in the final disposition (P = .165) or admission rate (33.7% vs 31.6%, P = .079). Patients with a final discharge disposition had a shorter LOS (median, 140.4 min vs 158.3 min; P < .001) after intervention. ConclusionsThe intervention strategy used peer pressure to enhance patient flow and throughput. More patients were discharged at the end of shifts, particularly triage level III patients. The ED LOS for patients whose final disposition was discharge decreased significantly.

PEER EFFECTS IN ADOLESCENT BMI: EVIDENCE FROM SPAIN

This paper extends the recent literature on the influence of peers on adolescent weight on three new fronts. First, based on a survey of secondary school students in Spain in which peers are formed by nominated classmate friends, we find a more powerful positive and significant causal effect of friends' mean BMI on adolescent BMI than previous US-based research. These results are in line with international data, which show that peer group contact tends to vary across countries. Our findings cover a large set of controls, fixed effects, the testing of correlated unobservables, contextual influences and instrumental variables. Second, social interactions are identified through the property of intransitivity in network relationships. Finally, we report evidence of a strong, positive effect of peer pressure on several subgroups of adolescents in an attempt to study their vulnerability to social influences.

The role of physical education and other formative experiences of three generations of female football fans

The experiences of female sports fans have been largely marginalised in academic research to date and little research has examined the formative sporting experiences of female spectators. This article draws on 51 semi-structured interviews with three generations of female fans of one (men's) professional football club (Leicester City), to consider the extent to which sports participation at school and elsewhere influences female football fandom, and also explores the influence of the family in channelling young females into or away from sport. We begin by examining the extent to which women had opportunities to experience football at school and how the type of school they attended affected these opportunities. We consider continuities and discontinuities between each generation's experiences by examining the influence of sexist teachers, the ubiquity of what the women viewed as ‘body conscious girls’ and the effects of peer pressure. Finally, we examine the ways in which families obstructed or facilitated young females' interest in football, and the importance of mainly male role models within and beyond the family. We conclude with some reflections on feminist praxis and its relevance for young people's formative sporting experiences.

Identity development as a buffer of adolescent risk behaviors in the context of peer group pressure and control

We examined identity development as a moderator of the relation between peer group pressure and control and adolescents’ engagement in risk behaviors. Participants (n=1070; Mage=15.45 years) completed a self-report measure of identity exploration, the degree to which they have explored a variety of self-relevant values, beliefs and goals, and identity commitment, the degree to which they have secured a personal identity. Participants further reported on their frequency of risk behaviors (substance use and general deviancy) and experienced peer group pressure and control. Results confirmed that identity commitment was a buffer of substance use and identity exploration was a buffer of general deviancy in more pressuring peer groups. In more controlling peer groups, teens with greater identity commitment engaged in less risk behavior than teens with low-identity commitment. Thus, identity development may be a suitable target to deter negative effects of peer pressure in high-risk adolescents.

The impact of active and passive peer influence on young adult smoking: An experimental study

BackgroundPeers influence adolescent and young adult smoking, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. It is necessary to understand whether the current assumption of peer pressure is valid, or whether an alternative explanation as imitation is more appropriate. We examined whether passive (imitation) and/or active (pressure) peer influence affects young adult smoking. MethodsAn experiment was conducted among 68 daily-smoking students aged 16–24. The actual study aim was masked. Participants had to do a 30-min music task with a confederate. The experiment consisted of a 2 (smoking condition: confederate smokes or not) by 2 (pressure condition: confederate offers the participant a cigarette or not) factorial design, resulting in four conditions: (1) no smoking and no pressure (N=15); (2) smoking but no pressure (N=16); (3) pressure but no smoking (N=20); and (4) smoking and pressure (N=17). The primary outcome tested was the total number of cigarettes smoked during this music assignment. ResultsPeer smoking significantly predicted the total number of cigarettes smoked by young adults while peer pressure did not. The interaction effect of peer pressure and peer smoking was not significant. ConclusionsPeer pressure did not have a significant additional contribution, over and above smoking of the peer. Passive (imitation) peer influence affected young adult smoking rather than active (pressure) peer influence. Thus, smoking cessation efforts should aim at preventing interaction with smoking peers and raising awareness about its impact.

The outcome of cochlear implantation in adolescents

Results Seventy-eight patients (51 females and 27 males) were identified for further analysis. The average age at implantation was 14 years. As expected the hearing loss in this group was attributed to a wide range of aetiologies, with the majority being considered congenital or idiopathic progressive. The mean score for speech perception using Bamford–Kowal–Bench (BKB) sentences pre-implant (Bench et al., 1979) was 26.3% (n= 24, range 4–68%). BKB could be administered in 56 patients post-implantation, with a mean result of 63.6% (range 12–100%). The BKB results were 67.9% (n= 34, range 20–100%), 70.5% (n= 32, range 20–100%), and 63.3% (n= 13, range 14–99%) at 1, 2, and 5 years post-implantation. Two patients are non-users and 12 patients are partial users. Fifty-nine of 78 (76%) individuals were subsequently educated within a ‘mainstream’ school or ‘total communication’ (speech and sign language) unit. Discussion Adolescence is known to be a time of great physical, emotional, psychological, and social change. For the deaf adolescent this may include their perception of their deafness and their place in the hearing and deaf communities. There are therefore significant challenges in working with this group; these include issues of consent, managing expectations, achieving the balance of caring for the individual while respecting parental concerns, recognizing motivations and the effect of peer pressure, and liaising with the educational system. These issues apply to all adolescents, including those undergoing cochlear implantation as a child and growing into adolescence. Despite the above issues, this group usually performs well, with the majority attending mainstream schools and achieving a normal educational level (Bosco et al., 2005). Huber et al. (2008) found no significant difference in the educational level of a group of 52 cochlear implant users, aged 12–21, compared to a control population. Those with congenital or progressive hearing loss who are considering surgery during adolescence pose more of a challenge. In a study of 25 children undergoing cochlear implantation between the ages of 8 and 18 years, Dowell et al. (2002) found that three factors have a predictive value for speech perception after implantation: pre-operative open set discrimination score, duration of profound hearing loss, and equivalent language age. Despite this, many studies show that adolescents, even if implanted after a prolonged period of profound hearing loss, can perform well, although there is often a wide variation in outcome (Schramm et al., 2002). Quality-of-life studies also show that cochlear implant recipients of all ages score similarly to control groups of normal hearing peers (Loy et al., 2010). It is therefore important that adolescents considering cochlear implantation are given accurate information, including the variation in outcome and the difficulty in predicting who will benefit most. More recently, many of the issues that apply to cochlear implantation in adolescents have become Correspondence to: S J Broomfield, The Manchester Cochlear Implant Programme, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL, UK. Email: steve_broomfield@hotmail.com