Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 16

Psychology - Essay Example In a similar vein, studies have shown that social influence through friends influence the use of alcohol in young adults and friends. This is the rationale behind the attempt of the study to evaluate the strength of influence of parents, siblings and friends in the frequency of alcohol use over time in adolescents and young adults. The research question pertains to finding out whether there is any difference in the influence between, parents, siblings, and friends’ use of alcohol on frequency of alcohol use over time in adolescents and young adults, and whether the influences of parents, siblings, and friends were moderated by factors of age and sex. The study provides additional input on the influence of familial and friends on the use of alcohol in adolescent and young adults in three ways consisting of simultaneous examination of this influence, differences in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, and the use of twin data. The frequency of drinking of the participants was ascertained through the use of a single question with eight response categories. The Netherlands Twin Register Survey provided the data on the frequency of drinking among the parents, twins, and friends of the participant twins. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted on the data collected in 1993 to evaluate the cross sectional influence of family members and friends on regular drinking in adolescents and young adults. Multivariate logistic regression analyses for the short term (1993 to 1995) longitudinal data, and for the long term (1993 to 2000) longitudinal data was used to determine whether drinking habits in family and friends predicted consumption of alcohol in adolescents and young adults. Influence of drinking of twin was assessed in data from 1995 and 2000. Cross-sectional multivariate logistic regression analyses