The additional findings of developmental differences in peer selection and socialization are consistent with other studies finding diminished magnitude of peer and other social influences on alcohol use between adolescence and emerging adulthood (Scholte et al., 2008). These findings indicate that adolescents are more susceptible to peer influences on alcohol use than adults, perhaps due to the incomplete maturation of the prefrontal cortex at this time (Crews et al., 2007). By contrast, in adulthood the similarity between friends' and own drinking may be due primarily to the selection of friends based on similar drinking habits. The weaker continuity in both friends' and own alcohol use between adolescence to young adulthood is likely a function of the life events and transitions associated with this developmental period, such as transition to employment, involvement in serious long-term romantic relationships, marriage, and childbearing; these transitions typically place limits on social drinking and alcohol use in general that endure throughout young adulthood (Dawson et al., 2006; Duncan et al., 2006).
