Evaluation

• Difficult to ascertain the level of influence from peers

  -Distinguishing the influence of friends from family is impossible and therefore the exact amount someone is influenced by their peers is difficult to establish.

  -The influence of peers is likely to be greater at different ages.

  -Peer influence seems to increase during adolescence, so substance abuse in young adults is likely to be influenced by peers to a greater extent than parents.
• Research support - Bullers et al

  -found in a longitudinal study that the addiction occurred first and selection of peer group followed the addiction.

  -This suggests that social influence has less of an effect on the development of addiction as originally thought.