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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Addictive Behaviors

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1655761

This article is part of the Research TopicAdolescent Smoking, Alcohol Consumption and Psychoactive Substance Misuse in Low-Middle Income CountriesView all 10 articles

Moderators of peer influence effects for adolescents’ smoking and vaping norms and outcomes in high and middle-income settings

Provisionally accepted
Jennifer  Marie MurrayJennifer Marie Murray1*Sharon  Sánchez-FrancoSharon Sánchez-Franco2Olga  L SarmientoOlga L Sarmiento2Erik  KimbroughErik Kimbrough3Christopher  TateChristopher Tate1Shannon  C MontgomeryShannon C Montgomery4Rajnish  KumarRajnish Kumar1Laura  Maria DunneLaura Maria Dunne1Abhijit  RamalingamAbhijit Ramalingam5Erin  KrupkaErin Krupka6Felipe  MontesFelipe Montes2Huiyu  ZhouHuiyu Zhou7Laurence  MooreLaurence Moore8Linda  BauldLinda Bauld9Blanca  LlorenteBlanca Llorente10Frank  KeeFrank Kee1Ruth  HunterRuth Hunter1*
  • 1Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
  • 2Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
  • 3Chapman University, Orange, United States
  • 4Florida State University, Tallahassee, United States
  • 5Appalachian State University, Boone, United States
  • 6University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
  • 7University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
  • 8University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 9The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • 10Fundacion Anaas, Bogotá, Colombia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Peer influence is central to adolescent smoking initiation, yet its impact varies depending on individual and contextual factors. Understanding which moderators (personality, contextual, cultural, and environmental traits) shape these processes can inform more effective prevention strategies. We investigated hypothesized moderators of peer influence for adolescent smoking/vaping norms and other smoking-related outcomes in high and low-middle-income countries (LMICs): Northern Ireland and Bogotá. Methods: Across 12 schools (n=1344, age 12-13 years), participants completed novel behavioral economics experiments measuring social norms, and self-report surveys, before and after school-based prevention interventions (ASSIST and Dead Cool). We examined how peer influence effects were moderated by setting, intervention type, gender, school socio-economic status (SES), personality traits, social network positions, and self-efficacy. Moderation was examined using regressions with interactions between peer-group means (friends, school classes, school year groups) of the outcome variables and moderators (p≤0.01). Results: Peer influence was moderated by study setting, intervention, gender, school SES, personality characteristics (pro-sociality, fear of negative evaluation, extraversion), and social network structure. Effects were stronger among girls and in schools with lower SES. ASSIST schools showed greater peer influence effects than Dead Cool, reflecting the programs’ distinct mechanisms, as ASSIST operates primarily through network diffusion and Dead Cool through teacher-led instruction and skills-building. Network measures highlighted that peer influence was stronger amongst more central individuals and more homogenous networks. Conclusion: Susceptibility to peer influence depends on contextual, individual, and network factors. Future social norms interventions should provide information on both injunctive and descriptive norms and highlight the social consequences of smoking, particularly in LMICs. Gender-tailored approaches are needed to address heightened susceptibility among girls. Future intervention research should combine peer-led diffusion approaches with teacher-led instruction to maximize reach and sustainability in different contexts. Social influence-based interventions may be particularly beneficial for schools with lower SES or in LMICs without tobacco control legislation, where smoking remains largely normalized. Network-based interventions like ASSIST could benefit from careful consideration of which network metrics are used to select peer leaders (e.g., eigenvector or closeness centralities) and exploring alternative approaches for more heterogeneous networks (e.g., 'segmentation', which targets clusters of individuals within social networks).

Keywords: Smoking, prevention, adolescents, Norms, social influence, social networks, moderation analysis, Low and middle-income countries

Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Murray, Sánchez-Franco, Sarmiento, Kimbrough, Tate, Montgomery, Kumar, Dunne, Ramalingam, Krupka, Montes, Zhou, Moore, Bauld, Llorente, Kee and Hunter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Jennifer Marie Murray, jmurray39@qub.ac.uk
Ruth Hunter, ruth.hunter@qub.ac.uk

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