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The role of parents and peers on adolescents prosocial behavior and substance use

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Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

Published online on

Abstract

The focus of this study was to understand both parental and peer influence on adolescents’ prosocial and substance use outcomes. Data were drawn from the Flourishing Families Project, which consisted of 500 individuals (Mage at Time 1 = 11.83; 51.6% female; 33% were from single-parent families) who participated at six time points, each approximately 1 year apart. Results suggest that parental warmth (at Time 2) was associated with self-regulation (Time 3), which was then associated with prosocial and deviant peer association (Time 4). Peer association was in turn related to prosocial behaviors and substance use (Time 7). Discussion focused on the role that both parents and peers play on adolescent outcomes and suggests that while peer influence during mid-adolescence is significantly linked with behavioral outcomes in late adolescence, early adolescent experiences of parental warmth also have indirect effects on the outcomes.