Allen, Porter, and McFarland (2006) proposed that susceptibility to influence is a function of autonomy development (i.e., behavior change resulting from interactions with peers is a reflection of adolescents’ capacity to self-direct one’s behavior and engage in independent thinking). Using an adolescent’s ability to maintain his/her viewpoint in a discussion with a best friend as a performance-based measure of peer susceptibility, Allen et al. (2006) revealed that susceptibility was associated longitudinally with psychosocial difficulties (e.g., increases in depressive symptoms and declines in popularity with peers). Conversely, these investigators found that the ability to influence friends was associated with resistance to negative peer pressure and markers of healthy psychosocial adaptation. Further supporting the role of autonomy development in peer influence susceptibility, Bamaca and Umana-Taylor (2006) found a link between self-reported resistance to overt pressure from peers and emotional autonomy from parents in a Mexican American sample of adolescents. Thus, it appears that adolescents’ capacity to both influence and be influenced may vary based on success in meeting age-related developmental milestones.
