This study also deliberately assessed apparent susceptibility to peer influence in one highly specific and ecologically relevant context (a current close friendship), and with regard to one type of behavior (substance use). From this perspective, susceptibility to peer influence should not be viewed as a personality trait that exists in a psychosocial vacuum any more than any other important social-interactional characteristic. Rather this study considered susceptibility to peer influence as one potentially important aspect of the developing person-within-social-context matrix of behavioral responses of the adolescent. Future research will be needed to understand the extent to which the susceptibility within a primary peer relationship observed in this study reflects a more generalized pattern of susceptibility to influence by other peers, and with regard to other behaviors.
