The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #65199

Keryn E. Pasch, MPH¹, Christine Jackson, PhD², and Katherine J. Karriker Jaffe, MS². (1) School of Public Health Division of Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454, 612-374-4602, pasc0074@umn.edu, (2) Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#7440, Rosenau Hall, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440

Peers have long been thought to be an important factor in the initiation and continued use of alcohol among children and adolescents. When examining how peers affect alcohol use, there are two processes that need to be addressed: peer influence and peer selection. The predominant model in the literature is the peer influence model; however, more recently the issue of peer selection has received increasing attention. This poster will examine the processes of peer influence and peer selection among a cohort of 446 youth. The data were collected in the fourth, fifth, and eleventh grades. The following hypotheses will be tested: 1) Among children who are abstinent at baseline, those who have at least one friend that has early experience with alcohol are more likely to be drinkers by follow-up than those who had abstinent friends at baseline and 2) Abstinent children will have selected to affiliate with abstinent friends by adolescence and children who are not abstinent at baseline will have selected to affiliate with non-abstinent friends in adolescence. Two unique contributions of this poster to the existing literature are the early age of the sample at baseline and the longitudinal nature of the study. These two aspects will help to clarify which process is more likely to contribute to the effect peers have on child and adolescent alcohol use. Logistic regression will be used to develop odds ratios to describe the relationships between peer influence and adolescent alcohol use and between childhood alcohol use and peer selection.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the processes of peer influence and peer selection.
• Identify which process is more likely to account for some of the variance in the peer affect on adolescent alcohol use.
• Recognize the importance of peers in regard to alcohol use among children and adolescents.
• Recognize the complexity of measuring peer influence and peer selection in regard to child and adolescent alcohol use.

Keywords: Child/Adolescent, Alcohol Use

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.