Adolescent health behaviour and similarity-attraction: friends share smoking habits (really), but much else besides

Smoking habits and related attitudes were assessed in a sample of 4059 11- to 16-year-olds who also identified their best friends from among their fellow respondents. Subjects' responses were directly collated with those of their friends and indicated a clear covariation of smoking status (controlling for sex and age) as anticipated from previous research in which adolescents have been asked to report on the smoking habits of their friends. Such covariation, however, was not specific to smoking habits, but generalized to related measures of attitude and normative beliefs, alcohol use, health locus of control, school performance, spending habits and socio-economic status. Similarities on these other attributes were much the same, whether or not friends shared each others' smoking habits. It is concluded that these data argue against a simplistic view of unidirectional 'peer group influence' and invite an interpretation of friendship choice based on multiple dimensions of similarity.