The friend influence in network neighbourhood context on adolescents’ community attachment

• Main Authors: Chih-Yao Chang, Chyi-In Wu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Adolescence and Youth
• Subjects: social engagement; network neighbourhood; social influence; social network analysis; hlm
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1679203

Since peer influence is a powerful explanation for adolescent behaviour, few studies examine its effect on adolescent’s community sentiment. In this study, we measure Taiwanese adolescents’ attachment levels in their local community and its susceptibility to peer influence. We first identify adolescents’ close friends as network neighbours and then distinguish the effects of these neighbours’ community attachment from adolescents’ subjective experiences in. We then create four explanatory variables to examine their effects on community attachment. These variables are further measured at the individual level and the local respectively since we argue that adolescents would be influenced by their close friends to form their values and behaviours. The data collection is based on a Taiwanese nationwide in-school adolescent survey in 2015 with 1062 cases. The results show that social network analysis helps explain personal community attachment mainly from local level of friendship network structure and support the theory of peer influence.