Social Influence Measures Research Articles

Risk and protective factors as predictors of adolescent alcohol involvement and transitions in alcohol use: a prospective analysis.

Determinants of initial alcohol use may differ from predictors of accelerated or problematic consumption. Social influences may be strong predictors of initial drinking; however, later stages of problem drinking may be linked developmentally to intrapersonal deficits. This study prospectively examined the influence of chronic and changing risk and protective status in predicting adolescent alcohol involvement and transitions in alcohol use. Data were obtained from a three-wave cohort (N = 823) of 8th-10th grade nonintervention students participating in a school-based drug abuse prevention trial. Cognitive, attitudinal and social influence measures were dichotomized using empirical cut-offs to designate risk or protective status. Using a conceptually based assignment scheme, additive risk indices were created assessing chronic (averaging across time) and changing features of competence, psychological and interpersonal functioning, cognitive-affective and social influences. Three chronic and change protective indices were created tapping competence, psychological, and interpersonal functioning. Controlling for initial drinking and gender, chronic risk for social influence and psychological functioning and increased risk for social influences and competency predicted subsequent drinking behavior. Chronic psychological protection attenuated subsequent drinking. Using categorical measures of drinking behavior to designate nonuse, experimental or moderate-heavy use, chronic social influence and competency risk were associated with an increased likelihood of accelerated drinking, whereas improved psychological functioning diminished the likelihood of increased drinking behavior. Findings underscore the need for implementing prevention strategies that reinforce developmentally appropriate skills and enhance personal competence and psychological functioning as effective barriers against initial and more problematic alcohol use. The unique contribution of protective forces also underscores that risk reduction and protection enhancement are complementary processes and are both required to offset social influences for alcohol consumption.

Expectancies as mediators of the effects of social influences and alcohol knowledge on adolescent alcohol use: A prospective analysis.

Expectancies play an important role in the generation of adolescent alcohol use. However, few studies have precisely elucidated their role when specified with other prominent measures of social influences, which may also independently promote alcohol use. Three-year panel data and path-analytic techniques were used to test a model positing that social reinforcement expectancies mediate the effects of perceived friends' alcohol use, friends' alcohol attitudes, and knowledge of near-term health effects and alcohol prevalence on both contemporaneous and subsequent alcohol involvement. Evidence of mediation was obtained with both cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. Perceived peer norms had a direct effect on alcohol use, and knowledge of normative alcohol use had a unique long-term protective influence on later alcohol use. Findings are discussed in terms of a 2-pronged prevention model that (a) integrates principles of social learning theory with expectancy-based, cognitive-behavioral change and (b) emphasizes dissemination of age-appropriate alcohol information in programs that aim to reduce alcohol use.

The Impact of Social Influences in the Context of Attitude, Self‐Efficacy, Intention, and Previous Behavior as Predictors of Smoking Onset1

Three different constructs for measuring social influence were utilized in the present study to explain adolescents' present and future smoking behavior at 6 (T2), 12 (T3), and 18 months (T4) after the first test. Social influence was assessed by measuring the social norms, perceived smoking behavior, and direct pressure. The impact of the social influence constructs was also assessed in the context of broader models, including attitudes and self‐efficacy expectations, intention, and previous behavior. The three social influence measures correlated significantly with intention and behavior. Stepwise regression analyses showed that perceived behavior and pressure made significant contributions, after entering social norms, in explaining actual and future adolescent smoking behavior. Adding attitudes and self‐efficacy increased the predictive power of the model significantly. In agreement with the theory of Fishbein & Ajzen (1975), intention was the most powerful predictor in explaining present and future smoking behavior. Attitudes, self‐efficacy, and the social influences also made small unique contributions improving the explanatory power by approximately 5%. Previous behavior, however, had a substantial unique contribution in predicting future behavior after attitudes, social influences, self‐efficacy, and intention were entered in the equations. Since social influences may exert their impact via different routes, it is recommended that smoking prevention programs discuss not only overt pressures such as direct pressure from peers, parents, and media, but also address the more covert social pressures such as modeling and the adolescents' ability to cope with these covert influences. Furthermore, norms on nonsmoking should be made explicit.

Social influence predictors of alcohol use among New York Latino youth

We examined demographic and social influence predictors of adolescent drinking among New York City Latino adolescents, including specific Latino subgroups (i.e., Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, and Ecuadorian). Sixth- and seventh-grade students ( N = 3129) who identified themselves as Latino or Hispanic on the survey questionnaire comprised our Latino sample. The survey included self-reported frequency of alcohol use, demographic items, and measures of social influences for drinking. Logistic-regression analyses revealed that social influences (how many friends drink, attitudes of parents and friends toward respondent's drinking) are strong predictors of current drinking (defined as drinking at least once a month) for the overall sample of Latino youth, as well as for Puerto Rican youth and Dominican youth. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention.

Dyad dominance composition effects, nonverbal behaviors, and influence

The effects of dyad composition on interactive behaviors and the relation of interactive behaviors to social influence were examined. Videotapes of the discussions of 34 pairs of white college men matched by age and FIRO-B control scale were scored for talking time per minute, successful interruptions per minute, relaxation, and visual dominance ratio. These behaviors were related to a measure of social influence in a discussion task based on changes from individual to dyadic solutions for the NASA Moon Survival Problem. MANOVA results show that the speaking time per minute and look-speak ratio of moderate men varied significantly with the dominance rank of the partner. Multiple regression indicated that successful interruptions and postural relaxation predicted personality dominance scores, explaining 13.4% of the trait variance. The personality measure of dominance was correlated to the visual dominance ratio and influence.