Annual of social work, Vol. 15 No. 3, 2008.
Original scientific paper
ADOLESCENTS’ SUSCEPTIBILITY TO PEER PRESSURE – CHALLENGES OF DEFINING AND MEASURING
Marija Lebedina-Manzoni
; Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Martina Lotar
orcid.org/0000-0003-0666-0299
; Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Neven Ricijaš
orcid.org/0000-0001-8107-8448
; Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The aim of the research was to construct a multidimensional susceptibility to peer pressure scale and explore eventual differences in susceptibility to peer pressure regarding gender and grade. The participants were 217 first, second and third grade high-school students in Zagreb. The sample included 66% of girls and 34% of boys, aged 15 to 18. Areas of peer pressure and categories of potential items for the scale were defined on the basis of Brown’s and Clasen’s (1985) conceptualization of peer pressure. Focus groups with adolescents were also conducted with the aim of gaining peer pressure categories. Item reduction was conducted in several steps: distribution of each item, factor analysis for each category, inter-item and item-total correlations and factor analysis of the whole scale. The constructed version of the scale included 22 items on five factors (1. Peer relations; 2. Physical appearance; 3. Relations with parents; 4. Risk behaviour and 5. Behaviour in school). The scale showed good factor structure and internal consistency. The results of the research suggest that boys are more susceptible to peer pressure than girls only for risk behaviour, whereas there are no differences in susceptibility to peer pressure related to the grade attended by the students.
Keywords
adolescents; peer influence; peer pressure; risk behaviour
Hrčak ID:
31379
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2008.
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