SOCIAL-INFLUENCE AND ADOLESCENT LIFE-STYLE ATTITUDES

In a 2-year panel study, children's and adolescents' (aged 9-15 years) approval of both healthy and deviant mature lifestyle attitudes such as holding afterschool jobs, smoking, and dating increased linearly wi th grade for both boys and girls. Boys approved of these activities mo re than did girls; however, girls' approval increased more rapidly. By eighth grade, gender differences in attitudes had almost vanished. Re lative liking and respect for the other sex also increased from fourth grade to eighth grade, although children remained strongly gender bia sed in their reported interactions. Students with more mature attitude s were more popular with the other sex, but there was no relation betw een attitudes and same-sex popularity. These results support a social influence explanation of adolescent attitude development and suggest t hat simple same-age peer pressure is not sufficient to account for the development of mature attitudes.