Peer influence processes appeared linked to several indicators of adolescents' prior experiences within their own families of origin. Adolescents who were observed in a revealed differences task to easily back away from their initial positions in disagreements with their mothers in early adolescence—a marker of problematic autonomy development—were most likely to have their future substance use predicted by their friend's use at baseline. This finding is consistent with the notion that these adolescents were struggling with the basic developmental task of establishing autonomy vis a vis parents, and that this pattern of autonomy struggles displayed continuity to qualities of peer relationships, as has been previously suggested (Allen, Hauser, O'Connor, & Bell, 2002). In short, autonomy difficulties in the family domain in early adolescence do not appear to remain confined to that domain, but rather appear to reflect difficulties that leave the adolescent set up to more easily adopt peer deviant behaviors as adolescence progresses.
