amplify negative influences and blunt positive influences in the friendship group (Cleveland & Wiebe 2003, Crosnoe et al. 2004). Work by Allen and associates (2005) adds another twist to this pattern, suggesting that, in many schools, popular adolescents must engage in some degree of risky behavior as a way of maintaining status. Thus, health behavior affects social position, which affects health behavior. Furthermore, associations between athletic participation, one of the strongest pathways to popularity in American schools, and both healthy behavior (e.g., exercise) and status-related unhealthy behavior (e.g., drinking) reveal the health trade-offs of peer dynamics (Hoffman 2006, Miller et al. 2003, Peck et al. 2008).
