School-Based Peer Effects and Juvenile Behavior

TLDR

The study tests whether peer‑group influences affect tenth‑graders’ likelihood of engaging in drug use, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, church attendance, and dropping out of high school. The authors analyze a sample of tenth‑graders to assess peer‑group effects on these five activities. Strong evidence of peer‑group effects at the school level is found for all activities, with endogeneity bias detected for drug use and alcohol drinking, confirming prior neighborhood‑level interaction findings.

Abstract

We use a sample of tenth-graders to test for peer-group influences on the propensity to engage in five activities: drug use, alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, church going, and the likelihood of dropping out of high school. We find strong evidence of peer-group effects at the school level for all activities. Tests for bias due to endogenous school choice yield mixed results. We find evidence of endogeneity bias for two of the five activities analyzed (drug use and alcohol drinking). On the whole, these results confirm the findings of previous research concerning interaction effects at the neighborhood level.