Social Learning Theory suggests that it is not necessary for adolescents to observe a given behaviour and adopt it it is sufficient to perceive that the peer group accepts it, in order to be able to opt for similar behaviours ( Petraitis, Flay & Miller, 1995). The peer group may on one hand, serve as a model and influence behaviours and attitudes, whilst on the other hand, it may provide easy access, encouragement and an appropriate social setting for consumption ( Glaser, Shelton & Bree, 2010). Health does not depend solely on the delivery of health care during illness on the contrary, influence of different settings may be crucial ( Gaspar & Matos, 2008).īehavioural problems that occur during infancy and adolescence (particularly external problems, such as substance use and violence behaviours) may continue throughout adulthood, associated to social non-adaptation, substance abuse and conflicts ( Bongers, Koot, Van der Ende & Verhulst, 2008). Peers and family have a key role in promoting health during adolescence, as well as, the perception that youngsters have of their quality of life and subjective well-being. Experimenting substances also occurs usually during adolescents, a time of development in which tolerance is lower and the risk of dependency increases ( Glaser, Shelton & Bree, 2010). There are a variety of negative health indicators that show a peek during adolescence, namely homicide rates, non-intentional injuries, driving under alcohol effect or infection by sexually-transmitted diseases ( Mulye, Park, Neson, Irwin & Brindis, 2009). The negative influence of the peer group is more connected to the involvement in risk behaviours, whilst the positive influence is more connected with protective behaviours. The relationship with parents did not demonstrate the expected mediation effect, with the exception of the following elements: relation between type of friends and risk behaviour and communication with parent and lesser involvement in violence behaviours and increased well-being. The results show that peers have a direct influence in adolescents’ risk behaviours. The total sample of the HBSC study carried out in 2006 was 4,877 however with the use of the SEM, 1,238 participants were lost out of the total sample. The Portuguese survey included students from grades 6, 8 and 10 within the public education system, with an average age of 14 years old (SD=1.89). The sample used was the group of adolescents that participated in the Portuguese survey of the European study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC).
In order to achieve the aforementioned objective, an explanatory model based on the Structural Equations Modelling (SEM)was proposed. The current work aims to study both the peer group and family influence on adolescent behaviour.
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