When it comes to drinking alcohol, teens appear to be more influenced by their close friends then they are by what other teens are doing. A teen who believes his or her close friends do not drink alcohol is less likely to drink it even if he or she thinks that many other teens drink.
The drinking habits-real or perceived-of close friends had more of an influence in whether a teen used alcohol than did then whether they thought teens overall were likely to drink. Even if teens think that most teens are drinking alcohol they were less likely to have used it themselves if they did not think that their own friends did.
This finding comes from an analysis of information gathered by a large study run by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD). The NICHHD surveyed 15-year-olds and asked them questions whether they had had any alcoholic beverage in the past year, how many of their friends they thought used alcohol, and how many teens their age were drinking alcohol.
Public health groups, heath educators, and parents spend a lot of time trying to change drinking behavior in teenagers by addressing them as a group. This finding may mean that a more effective way to encourage teens not to drink is to get them to make friends with teens who do not drink.
"We're spending our time changing perceptions of the broader peer group, but really what might be the more key determinant of teen alcohol use is what's going on in their own friend group," said Jonathon Beckmeyer, an assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health in Bloomington and author of the study
The research was presented at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in November.
