ad a mean of 1.72 (1 = not at all approved and 5 = very much approved). By the eighth grade, the approval rating was 2.15. Furthermore, there was a linear relationship between the attitude and increasing grade of 0.58. Girls were less approving in fourth grade; however, they were quick to catch up to the boys by the eighth grade. Other factors, such as popularity between same sex and opposite sex were used in calculating social and attitudes. Popularity over time did not increase among the same sexes for males; however, influence females were more popular among the same sexes. The major increase in popularity was seen in the opposite sexes - attributed to heterosexual dating in older students. Students who were more popular were more approving of smoking and thus, were found to be more influential on others as well.Further interpretation of the results showed that during early adolescence, children may begin to respect and emulate their older peers and siblings more than they do their parents. This evidence was supported by that fact that popular children (opposite sex) were more approving of the sixteen attitudes that were questioned in the study. In the language of social impact theory, “other-sex children may be higher strength, influencing children more than do their same-sex peers on these developmental attitudes” (Harton and Lantan, 1997, p. 214). This study did not explicitly state that cigarette smoking was socially influenced by same sex or other-sex relationships and popularity; however, an assumption can be made as to the relationship. More than likely, popularity among same sex peers as well as other-sex peers plays a role in the attitude of smoking. It is natural that if one wants to be popular with a given group, he or she will conform to that group for approval. Also, since approval ratings increased over the grades, one can infer that social influence by older peers does play a key role in smoking...
