It is well-established that unstructured unsupervised socializing with peers (UUS) motivates deviance while in that specific context. In this article, we extend this situational view by arguing that repeated UUS may also gradually shape adolescents\' norms and decision making beyond the situation. Specifically, we argue that UUS promotes short-term mindsets, i.e., an increased focus on present rewards at the expense of considering future consequences. We test this hypothesis with fixed-effects models, using longitudinal data from a representative sample of 1,675 adolescents from Zurich, Switzerland. Consistent with our preregistered predictions, more frequent UUS is associated with increased short-term mindsets. Thus, our finding suggests that the effects of UUS on later deviance might be driven by becoming more present-oriented. This link offers new insights into the developmental pathways toward adolescent delinquency and offers a potential target for intervention.
UNASSIGNED: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40865-024-00249-2.

Adolescence is a period of normative heightened sensitivity to peer influence. Individual differences in susceptibility to peers is related to individual differences in neural sensitivity, particularly in brain regions that support an increasingly greater orientation toward peers. Despite these empirically-established patterns, the more specific psychosocial and socio-cognitive factors associated with individual differences in neural sensitivity to peer influence are just beginning to gain research attention. Specific features of the factors that contribute to how adolescents process social information can inform understanding of the psychological and neurobiological processes involved in what renders adolescents to be more or less susceptible to peer influences. In this paper, we (1) review the literature about peer, family, and broader contextual influences on sensitivity to peers\' positive and negative behaviors, (2) outline components of social information processing theories, and (3) discuss features of these models from the perspectives and social cognitive development and social neuroscience. We identify gaps in the current literature that need to be addressed in order to gain a more comprehensive view of adolescent neural sensitivity to peer influence. We conclude by suggesting how future neuroimaging studies can adopt components of this social information processing model to generate new lines of research.

This study focuses on the intricate connections among youth sports, personal development, and skill acquisition in contemporary China. Building upon established theoretical frameworks, the study aims to unravel the intricate interplay among various variables. Employing a robust methodology that accounts for mediation and moderation effects and with a sample of 808 individuals representing diverse demographics, the findings shed light on the significant influence of family structure, particularly the prevalence of extended family arrangements, on an individual\'s character development. Furthermore, the study underscores the pivotal role of personal characteristics, particularly self-esteem, in shaping admirable traits. The research identifies several contributing factors to positive character development, including active participation in sports, parental support, accessibility to sports facilities, positive peer influence, and high self-esteem. Parents play a crucial role in mitigating the adverse effects of peer pressure by offering positive reinforcement and serving as role models. These findings hold important implications for youth development programs, emphasizing the vital role of parents in guiding character development, particularly in the context of peer pressure.

BACKGROUND: Peer influence, the development of attitudes, and behavioral changes are some of the phenomenal changes that happen in adolescence.
METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken to find out the association between peer influence and behavior among 355 adolescents within the age group of 16 to 18 years, randomly chosen from Pre-university schools of Udupi district, Karnataka using the Peer Influence Scale (PIS) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).
RESULTS: The results indicate that their peers highly influenced 43.9% of the participants. Meanwhile, 23.1% and 7.9% of adolescents who participated in the survey showed borderline and abnormal behavior, respectively. The association between peer influence and behaviour was assessed using the Chi-square test; the results (χ2=14.545, P = 0.001) revealed that peers highly influence adolescent behavior and change adolescent conduct significantly.
CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents should be aware of the accepted and non-accepted behaviors in society and be wise in choosing the right peers who later influence their behavior. Parents need to check the conduct of their children and guide them in developing their identity.

UNASSIGNED: A systematic review was performed to summarize the key findings of the peer influence on cannabis use through Social Network Analysis (SNA) studies and identify limitations and gaps with the purpose of informing future research and practice. Longitudinal studies were included since they provide robust information about social relationships change over time.
UNASSIGNED: Adolescents\' cannabis use is a global problem, which has awakened an interest in its determinants such as social influences. Research has shown the importance of these influences on cannabis uptake and use. SNA is an useful relational approach to examine socialization mechanisms related to the onset of cannabis use in adolescents.
UNASSIGNED: A search was conducted in PyscINFO, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science for longitudinal articles published until February 2023, to examine cannabis use and peer\'s social networks. We focus on peers\' influence of peers on cannabis use. Additionally, information about effect of cannabis use for peer selection was collected.
UNASSIGNED: The results of the included studies (n = 8) showed that friends\' cannabis use was most often/strongly associated with cannabis use. There was also an increase of cannabis use when the adolescent did not feel close to the school\'s peers, had a higher proportion of friendships relative to the total number of ties in the neighborhood, had a central position, did not belong to any group but had ties to members of two or more groups, had cannabis user friends (especially in early ages), and lived in a neighborhood where cannabis was used.
UNASSIGNED: Cannabis use is mainly related to friends\' use. Yet, future studies are warranted to control for relevant selection effects to further knowledge on network effects on cannabis use, improving the design, and improving the modeling of the network. This systematic review may inform about the critical aspects of preventing cannabis use among adolescents, taking into consideration their complex social environment.

Vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, driven by social influence, is usually explored by most researchers using exhaustive survey-based studies, which investigate public preferences, fundamental values, beliefs, barriers, and drivers through closed or open-ended questionnaires. Commonly used simple statistical tools do not do justice to the richness of this data. Considering the gradual development of vaccine acceptance in a society driven by multiple local/global factors as a compartmental contagion process, we propose a novel methodology where drivers and barriers of these dynamics are detected from survey participants\' responses, instead of heuristic arguments. Applying rigorous natural language processing analysis to the survey responses of participants from India, who are from various socio-demographics, education, and perceptions, we identify and categorize the most important factors as well as interactions among people of different perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines. With a goal to achieve improvement in vaccine perception, we also analyze the resultant behavioral transitions through platforms of unsupervised machine learning and natural language processing to derive a compartmental contagion model from the data. Analysis of the model shows that positive peer influence plays a very important role and causes a bifurcation in the system that reflects threshold-sensitive dynamics.

In a recent meta-analysis, Giletta et al. (2021) [1] found a positive effect of peers\' behavior at time 1 on target youths\' behavior at time 2 while adjusting for target youths\' behavior at time 1 and claimed to have quantified peer influence. However, it is established that controlled cross-lagged effects could be due to correlations with measurement errors and reversion in the direction of the mean rather than due to true decreasing or increasing effects. Here, in a reanalysis of the same meta-analytic data as used by Giletta et al., we found that peer influence, as operationalized by Giletta et al., may have been distorted (i.e. spurious). We do not claim that peer influence does not exist, but it may be hard, maybe not even possible, to prove by analyses of observational data that it does exist. Difficulties to prove causal effects by analyses of observational data is common for all areas of research and not specific for research on peer influence.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1069384.].

This paper uses data from a 3-arm Cluster Randomized Control Trial, Suubi4Her (N = 1260; 14-17-year-old school-going girls) to (1) assess the relationship between peer pressure and adolescent risk-taking behaviors; and (2) test the mediating effect of peer pressure on an intervention on adolescent risk-taking behaviors.
Students in the southwestern region of Uganda were assigned to three study arms: control (n = 16 schools, n = 408 students) receiving usual care comprising of sexual and reproductive health curriculum; and two active treatment arms: Treatment 1 (n = 16 schools, n = 471 students) received everything the control arm received plus a savings led intervention. Treatment 2 (n = 15 schools, n = 381 students) received everything the control and treatment arms received plus a family strengthening intervention. We used multilevel models to assess the relationship between peer pressure and risk-taking behaviors. We ran structural equation models for mediation analysis.
Using baseline data, we found that direct peer pressure was significantly associated with substance use risk behaviors, (β = 0.044, 95% CI = 0.008, 0.079). We also found a statistically significant effect of the intervention on acquiring STIs through the mediating effect of sexual risk-taking significant (β = -0.025, 95% CI: -0.049, -0.001, p = .045) and total indirect (β = -0.042, 95% CI: -0.081, -0.002, p = .037) effects. Also, there was a significant mediation effect of the intervention on substance use through peer pressure (β = -0.030, 95% CI: -0.057, -0.002, p = .033).
Overall, the study points to the role of peer pressure on adolescent girls\' risk-taking behaviors; and a need to address peer pressure at an early stage.

Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) are an at-risk population for new HIV diagnoses. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a suite of biomedical approaches to prevent HIV infection. Latinx MSM are less likely to take PrEP compared to non-Latinx White MSM. This qualitative study identified interpersonal- and community-level barriers and facilitators of PrEP among young adult Latinx MSM. Using stratified purposeful sampling, 27 Latinx men, ages 19-29 years and living in a US-Mexico border region, completed self-report demographic surveys and participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews assessing barriers and facilitators to PrEP. Directed content analysis was used to identify both a priori and emerging themes. Most participants reported that other people, including peers, friends, partners, and health care providers were both supportive and discouraging of PrEP use. Participants\' intersectional identities as members of both Latinx and LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) communities both hindered and facilitated PrEP use.