In addition to the need for a careful integration of theoretical and statistical advances in studying multiple socialization influencers, there is a strong need to consider potentially conflicting socialization influences that adolescents may experience across distinct peer contexts and understand how youth reconcile the multiple influencing sources in their lives. It is quite likely that adolescents receive different, but perhaps equally powerful messages from their close friends, romantic partners, popular peer role models, enemies, and clique or crowd affiliates. Recent work, for example, found that adolescents who identified with multiple peer crowds with competing norms for substance use were less likely to engage in norm-consistent behavior, but more likely to adhere to substance use norms if they reported identification with several groups with congruent norms (Verkooijen, de Vries, & Nielsen, 2007). However, currently, little is known regarding the processes that guide adolescent decision-making when they are confronted with divergent socialization agents.
