Selection or influence? The position-based method to analyzing behavioral similarity in adolescent social networks

ABSTRACT Assessing friends’ selection and influence effects on their behavioural similarity is a challenge in adolescent behaviour research. In the present article, I propose an evaluation method along with social network analysis to examine changes in friendship networks and behavioural pattern in order to identify the prioritization of selection and influence effects at the earlier stage of adolescent formation of behaviour. To test this proposed method, the empirical data is from Taiwan Youth Project. Results show that adolescents’ behavioural similarity with regard to academic performance and delinquent behaviour is particularly affected by the selection effect at first, and then influence effect jointly shaped the behaviour patterns. This proposed model testing network-behaviour covariance would provide an alternative way of thinking for educational practitioners when dealing with deviating adolescent behaviour as well as developing their pro-social behaviours.