effects of groups and dyads (see Popp et al., 2008)—thus offers great potential to understand socialization effects more meaningfully. However, it will be important for future research to retain adequate emphasis on theory and use caution in allowing statistical applications to exclusively dictate the composition of adolescents’ peer cliques. For some behaviors (perhaps deviant behavior, for instance), tangentially related peers, connected to one another within a broad, diffuse network, may have the potential to influence the behavior of others. In fact, for some behaviors, peers with whom adolescents do not have any direct relationship still may be highly influential (i.e., see research on media influence effects; Dubow, Huesmann, & Greenwood, 2007). However, distant peer affiliations may be less relevant for covert or internalized attitudes/behaviors (e.g., depressive symptoms).
