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.