The effect of peers’ alcohol consumption on parental influence: A
cognitive mediational model.
Meg Gerrard, Frederick X. Gibbons, Lijun Zhao, Daniel W. Russell, Monica
Reis-Bergan
(1999) Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 13, 32-44.
The current study tested two hypotheses related to parent and peer
influence on adolescent alcohol consumption. The first hypothesis was that
cognitive variables specified in the prototype/willingness model of adolescent
risk behavior (Gibbons & Gerrard, 1997) mediate parents’ and peers’
influence on adolescent drinking. The second, was that association with peers
who drink dilutes parental influence. Results provided evidence of transmission
of prototypes of the typical drinker from parents to adolescents, and of the
importance of these prototypes and other alcohol-related cognitions as
mediators of adolescent consumption. In addition, the data provide evidence
that although parents’ cognitions--prototypes, values and beliefs--and their
relationships with adolescents are important in shaping the adolescents’
cognitions and drinking, association with peers who drink significantly
attenuates this parental influence.