Author's Keywords: Adolescents, risk behavior, social influence, social networks	Convention All Academic Convention makes running your annual conference simple and cost effective. It is your online solution for abstract management, peer review, and scheduling for your annual meeting or convention. Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! Click here for more information.
Association: Name: American Sociological Association Annual Meeting URL: http://www.asanet.org
Citation: URL: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p239786_index.html Direct Link: HTML Code:

Berten, Hans. "Peer influences on risk behavior: a network study of social influence among adolescents in Flemish secondary schools" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA, Jul 31, 2008 <Not Available>. 2009-05-23 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p239786_index.html>

Berten, H. , 2008-07-31 "Peer influences on risk behavior: a network study of social influence among adolescents in Flemish secondary schools" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA Online <PDF>. 2009-05-23 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p239786_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Abstract: Purpose: Studies in both health and risk behavior literature has since long suggested that peers influence adolescent’s behavior. Most research in this tradition has studied peer influence in terms of friendships relations. In network literature an alternative mechanism of influence had been put forward, based on actors similar positions in the peer network. In this paper both mechanisms of influence are tested with regard to adolescents’ sexual risk behavior and substance use. Methods: A network autocorrelation model is used to test both influence mechanisms in a representative sample of Flemish adolescents in secondary school (N=10.525), clustered in about 122 different networks. Each network was analyzed separately and afterwards a meta-analysis was conducted. Results: Results indicate that peers not only are influenced by their best friends, but also by their peers in structurally similar positions. Peers are more influenced in 5th grade than in 3rd grade and peer influence is stronger for substance use than for sexual risk behavior. When comparing both influence mechanisms, influence by cohesion is somewhat stronger than influence by structural equivalence, although an interaction effect was found with grade. Conclusions: This study has shown that in a setting such as school classes, where an informal structure of positions is developed as a consequence of repeated interaction, teenagers not only are influenced by their best friends but also by peers in structural equivalent positions. Implications of these findings are discussed for health and risk behavior studies.

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