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Contemporary study: Mundt et al (2012) (Procedure (Survey questions…
Contemporary study: Mundt et al (2012)
Aim
To see if adolescents select friends with similar alcohol use
If they adjust alcohol consumption in correspondence with the alcohol consumption level of their friends
Procedure
Study analysed data from an existing study
Original data collected from school children (13-18) using stratified sampling to choose high/middle schools considered representative of American schools in terms of funding and ethnicity
Wave 1
2653 students
Completed interview and parents completed survey
Researchers collected data including expectation for the future, self-esteem and risk behaviours (alcohol use)
Wave 2 (12 months later)
2299 students used
Completed another survey where they were asked similar questions
Survey questions
Alcohol use
How often did you consume alcohol in the past year?
Categorical responses
Social networks
Name your 5 best male and 5 best female friends from your school roster
Social networks within each school resulted in formation of a friendship matrix based on directed friendship designations
Demographics
Provided age, grade and race data at in-home interview
Age calculated to nearest month
Family characteristics
On a scale of 1-5, how often do you and your family have fun together?
Parents of sample indicated in parent interview in wave 1 how often they drank alcohol in the past year
Evaluation
Strengths
Used large samples, added generalisability to findings
Original sample came from stratified sampling, then random sampling
Techniques should have achieved representative sample to help generalisability
Has useful applications
Parents, health care professionals, school administrators and community leaders who focus on alcohol prevention efforts
Weaknesses
Participants could only give 5 best male/best female friends, limited choices to 10 friends
Can be said that some had to find 5 people, went beyond their closer friends
This way of gathering data could have given bias to the data
Didn't cover friendships outside the school, limiting the data
Alcohol use relied on self-report data, the researchers felt this was a 'valid measure'
Cohrs et al (2012)
looked at ratings of prejudice, found self-report data matched peer-report data --> supports self-report
But adolescents might report alcohol use, or the opposite, focusing on looking good
Only examined alcohol, not nicotine or other drugs
Other factors involving friendship selection were not investigated, might have had greater influence than alcohol
Results
44% adolescents' parents reported drinking alcohol in the past year
Over 70% of adolescents reported strong family bonding
Wave 2 --> 50% students reported no alcohol use in the past 12 months
Friendship selection associated with similarity in alcohol consumption
Sample and method
Longitudinal survey of 13-18 year old U.S students
51% boys, 49% girls
Secondary data from a national longitudinal study of adolescent health
Conclusions
One factor that influences who adolescents choose as their friends is similarities in alcohol use
Friends have little influence on alcohol once the friendship is in place
Peer selection plays a role in alcohol use behaviour among adolescent friends