“Dynamics of adolescent friendship networks and smoking behavior.”
By Liesbeth Mercken, Tom Snijders, Christian Steglich, Erkki Vartiainen, and Hein de Vries, 2010.
Social Networks 32, 72-81.

The mutual influence of smoking behavior and friendships in adolescence is studied. It is attempted to disentangle influence and selection processes in reciprocal and non-reciprocal friendships. An actor-based model is described for the co-evolution of friendship networks and smoking behavior. This model considers alternative selection and influence mechanisms, and models continuous-time changes in network and behavior. The data consists of a longitudinal sample of 1326 Finnish adolescents in 11 high schools. Findings suggest that selection as well as influence processes play an important role in adolescent smoking behavior. Selection had a relatively stronger role than influence, in particular when selecting non-reciprocal friends. The strength of both influence and selection processes decreased over time.

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