Role Overlap, Network Multiplexity, and Adolescent Deviant Behavior

Abstract

We introduce the concept of network multiplexity to examine how well structural characteristics of adolescents' social networks explain the variance in adolescent cigarette smoking. Specifically, we examine hypotheses concerning the effect of adolescents' joint participation with both parents and friends, and parents' knowledge of their child's friends, on adolescent cigarette smoking. The data for the analyses are drawn from 1435 ninth-through 12th-grade students in a small midwestern city. The findings show that adolescents who participate jointly with their parents or who participate with both parents and friends are less likely to smoke cigarettes. In addition, adolescents whose friends are known to parents are less likely to smoke. We conclude that this perspective also holds promise as an explanation for forms of deviant behavior which may represent more serious threats to adolescents' social networks.