Symmetry in Adolescent Friendship and Cigarette Smoking Behavior: The Maintenance of Similarity

Past research indicates that adolescents have a propensity towards being similar to their close friends in their social network systems - a common ground which nurtures and fuels adolescent friendship bonds. The current study examines whether key intrapersonal and interpersonal domains of similarity among adolescents and their friends including perceived tie strength, generalized expectancies about future life events, and co-participation in school activities, predicts similarity in cigarette smoking behavior among adolescent friendship dyads. The data utilized in this study are from wave one of the National Study of adolescent Health (Add Health), of adolescent youth ages 11-19 in the United States (n=37,879). Dyad level indicators of similarity in perceived tie strength, generalized expectancies, and co-participation in school activities will be simultaneously tested in relation to similarity in cigarette smoking using Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Implications for tobacco prevention programming will be discussed.