Perceived peer influence and peer selection on adolescent smoking Beth R. Hoffman a, ⁎ , Peter R. Monge b , Chih-Ping Chou a , Thomas W. Valente a a Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, University of Southern California, 1000 S. Fremont Avenue, Suite 8, Alhambra, CA 91803 USA b Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0281 USA Abstract Despite advances in tobacco control, adolescent smoking remains a problem. The smoking status of friends is one of the highest correlates with adolescent smoking. This homophily (commonality of friends based on a given attribute) may be due to either peer pressure, where adolescents adopt the smoking behaviors of their friends, or peer selection, where adolescents choose friends based on their smoking status. This study used structural equation modeling to test a model of peer influence and peer selection on ever smoking by adolescents. The primary analysis of the model did not reach significance, but post hoc analyses did result in a model with good fit. Results indicated that both peer influence and peer selection were occurring, and that peer influence was more salient in the population than was peer selection. Implications of these results for tobacco prevention programs are discussed. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Adolescence; Cigarette smoking; Peers; Friend Smoking is still a significant problem affecting adolescents in the United States. The CDC reported in 2004 that 8.11% of middle school students and 22.3% of high school students had smoked cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002). People who initiate smoking earlier in life smoke more throughout their lifetime and have a harder time quitting than people who initiate smoking later (Chassin, Presson, Pitts, & Sherman, 2000). Addictive Behaviors 32 (2007) 1546 – 1554 ⁎ Corresponding author. Friends Research Institute, 1001 W. Carson Street, Suite U, Torrance, CA 90502, United States. Tel.: +1 310 224 4670; fax: +1 310 782 9140. E-mail addresses: bethsna@gmail.com (B.R. Hoffman), monge@usc.edu (P.R. Monge), cchou@usc.edu (C.-P. Chou), tvalente@usc.edu (T.W. Valente). 0306-4603/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.11.016