Peer relationships, especially those during adolescence, contribute to an individual’s initiation, progression, and trajectories of cigarette use (70). In fact, adolescent smoking is more strongly associated with peer smoking, relative to parents’ smoking (57,71–73). It has also been suggested that parental smoking does not moderate the association between friends smoking and adolescent smoking; although, parental behaviors may effect smoking progression through their impact on the selection of friends (74) and limiting increases in the number of friends who smoke (62). It has been previously suggested that adolescents who frequently smoke in the presence of others, use smoking as a way to achieve social belonging (75) and are more likely to smoke when their best friends smoke. However, there is debate about whether peer influence leads to smoking (e.g. socialization) or whether individuals who smoke tend to seek out other smokers (e.g. selection) (76). Added to this, cigarette use initiation is more likely to occur in schools with higher smoking rates (77), since smoking may seem more normative and acceptable (78) and more social sources of cigarettes may exist (79). This
