Overall, research on peer influence has expanded dramatically within the past decade, offering important conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions to an exciting and important area of study. Much work is still needed, including continued examination within each of the domains of peer influence research reviewed here. Moreover, there is a very strong need to further understand factors that may be relevant for understanding potential ethnic or cultural differences in peer selection and socialization processes; unfortunately, these issues have been grossly understudied. Continued work utilizing longitudinal designs, particularly involving multiple waves of data, also will be essential in the future to help elucidate reciprocal associations between selection and socialization processes and to illuminate the developmental changes that may underlie the types of behaviors, moderators, and mechanisms that may be especially pertinent at various ages. Large data sets also will help to appropriately examine questions regarding complex social networks, and overlapping relationships, that accurately reflect the true complexity of adolescents’ peer interactions. Further, more data are needed to understand the magnitude of peer influence effects, particularly as compared with other risk factors for maladaptive behaviors.
