Friend Selection and Influence Effects for First Heavy Drinking Episode in Adolescence

Finding and Keeping Friends in College and Their Influence on Alcohol Use: A Network Analysis

OBJECTIVE

We investigate how alcohol use and friendship co-evolve during students' transition to university. We discern effects of peer influence from friend selection based on alcohol use, whether such effects vary in strength across the school year, and whether alcohol has different effects on friendship formation versus friendship maintenance.

METHOD

We gathered data on friendships, alcohol use, and binge drinking from 300 residence hall students (71% female) at a large, public U.S. university. Surveys were conducted at four time points during the 2015-2016 academic year. We used a stochastic actor-oriented model to test whether alcohol use was influenced by one's friends, while simultaneously testing for friend selection based on alcohol use and related network processes.

RESULTS

Students were 7.0 times more likely to drink alcohol weekly if all versus none of their friends drank weekly and 6.8 times more likely to binge drink when all versus none of their friends engaged in binge drinking, after we controlled for friend selection. Alcohol use differentially affected friendship creation and maintenance in a complex manner: (a) weekly drinkers were more likely to form new friendships and dissolve existing friendships than nondrinkers and (b) similarity on drinking fostered new friendships but had no effect on friendship persistence.

CONCLUSIONS

Friends influence one another's weekly drinking and binge drinking, whereas conversely, alcohol use contributes to both friendship formation and friendship instability.

Finding and Keeping Friends in College and Their Influence on Alcohol Use: A Network Analysis

OBJECTIVE

We investigate how alcohol use and friendship co-evolve during students' transition to university. We discern effects of peer influence from friend selection based on alcohol use, whether such effects vary in strength across the school year, and whether alcohol has different effects on friendship formation versus friendship maintenance.

METHOD

We gathered data on friendships, alcohol use, and binge drinking from 300 residence hall students (71% female) at a large, public U.S. university. Surveys were conducted at four time points during the 2015-2016 academic year. We used a stochastic actor-oriented model to test whether alcohol use was influenced by one's friends, while simultaneously testing for friend selection based on alcohol use and related network processes.

RESULTS

Students were 7.0 times more likely to drink alcohol weekly if all versus none of their friends drank weekly and 6.8 times more likely to binge drink when all versus none of their friends engaged in binge drinking, after we controlled for friend selection. Alcohol use differentially affected friendship creation and maintenance in a complex manner: (a) weekly drinkers were more likely to form new friendships and dissolve existing friendships than nondrinkers and (b) similarity on drinking fostered new friendships but had no effect on friendship persistence.

CONCLUSIONS

Friends influence one another's weekly drinking and binge drinking, whereas conversely, alcohol use contributes to both friendship formation and friendship instability.

Changes in Drinking Contexts over the Night Course: Concurrent and Lagged Associations with Adolescents' Nightly Alcohol Use

BACKGROUND

Examining underage drinking contexts can advance the field of adolescent substance use prevention by supporting and informing interventions that can target adolescents in specific contexts. The current study examines how concurrent and lagged situational (i.e., alcohol availability and adult supervision), social (i.e., the number of people and presence of friends), and location (i.e., home vs other location) context characteristics change risks for alcohol use over the night course.

METHODS

Text messages with links to online surveys were used to collect ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data over 2 weekends from adolescents in California. Data were collected using adolescents' personal cell phones early and late in the evening and the following morning. Analyses were limited to adolescents with at least 1 drinking occasion during EMA (N = 58; Mage = 16.64, SD = 0.74; 48% female; 83% White).

RESULTS

Drinking earlier in the evening was positively associated with continued drinking over the night course. Context characteristics were found to play important concurrent and lagged roles in increasing the likelihood of alcohol use over evening hours.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicated substantive concurrent and lagged social, situational, and location-based contextual effects on adolescent alcohol use over the course of an evening. Importantly, context characteristics were differentially associated with alcohol use over the course of the evening. The fact that these contextual factors are modifiable suggests that the use of prevention strategies delivered to adolescents throughout the evening may reduce adolescents' drinking and related problems over the evening hours.

Childhood Friendship Experiences and Cognitive Functioning in Later Life: The Mediating Roles of Adult Social Disconnectedness and Adult Loneliness

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This study investigated the relationship between childhood friendships and cognitive functioning, as assessed with cognitive status and decline among adults aged 45 and older in China. We also examined the mediating effect of adult social disconnectedness and adult loneliness for this relationship.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This study was based on 3 waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS; 2011, 2013, 2015; N = 13,959). Cognitive functioning was assessed with episodic memory. Childhood friendship measures were taken from the 2014 life history module of the CHARLS. Two dimensions of adult social isolation, loneliness and social disconnectedness, were included as mediators. Latent growth curve modeling was utilized to test the associations between childhood friendships, adult social isolation, and cognitive functioning.

RESULTS

Adverse childhood friendship experiences were found to be significantly associated with both lower initial cognitive status and the rate of decline in cognitive functioning. Our findings indicated that adult loneliness and social disconnectedness partly mediated the link between childhood friendship experiences and the initial level of cognitive functioning, but not cognitive decline later in life.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The findings emphasized the enduring importance of childhood friendships for cognitive functioning later in life. Interventions that focus on improving social participation through fostering friendships in childhood may have long-term benefits for cognition later in life.