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Where It's At! The Role of Best Friends and Peer Group Members in Young Adults' Alcohol Use
Author(s) -
Overbeek Geertjan,
Bot Sander M.,
Meeus Wim H. J.,
Sentse Miranda,
Knibbe Ronald A.,
Engels Rutger
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00696.x
Subject(s) - psychology , alcohol , young adult , alcohol consumption , peer group , multilevel model , context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , age groups , consumption (sociology) , demography , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , social science , sociology , biology , machine learning , computer science
We examined the hypothesis that best friends and members from a broader peer group would not differ in the amount of influence they have on young adults' alcohol consumption and that what counts would be the mere presence of drinking peers in a given context—irrespective of the type of relationship such peers would have with the target young adult. Data were used from a naturalistic observation study that was conducted in a “bar‐lab” among 221 young adults aged 18–25 years. Both hierarchical and multilevel regression analyses showed that group effects (i.e., average group levels of alcohol consumption) explained young adults' drinking. When taking into account these group effects, best friends' alcohol consumption in the bar‐lab was a nonsignificant predictor of young adults' alcohol use—although best friends' questionnaire‐assessed drinking did predict alcohol consumption in the bar‐lab.