Associations Between Peer Pressure and Adolescents’ Binge Behaviors: The Role of Basic Needs and Coping

Abstract

Framed from a framework based on the integration of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and Endler and Parker’s (1990) conception of coping strategies, the authors analyzed the relationships between peer pressure and binge behaviors (binge eating and binge drinking) in adolescence. Moreover, the authors explored the mediating role of satisfaction/frustration of basic psychological needs and coping strategies in these associations. Participants were 570 high school students (M = 15.75 years, SD = 1.14 years) living in Italy. The study design was cross-sectional and adolescents were administered self-report questionnaires. Path analysis showed significant and positive direct associations of peer pressure with both binge eating and binge drinking. Moreover, findings show that there is an indirect path in which peer pressure is positively associated with need frustration that is related to the use of emotion-oriented coping strategies that, on their turn, are associated with binge eating. Differently, binge drinking seems to be only directly related to peer pressure. The authors put light to the complex nature of the relationships between peer pressure and binge behaviors in adolescence, taking into account the separate contribution of need satisfaction and need frustration, as well as of coping strategies. Finally, practical implications of the study are discussed.

Keywords:

• Peer pressure
• binge drinking
• binge eating
• psychological basic needs
• coping

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristiano Inguglia

Cristiano Inguglia is an Assistant Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement of the University of Palermo (Italy). His research interests focus on the relationships between autonomy, relatedness, parenting dimensions and psychological well-being in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Sebastiano Costa

Sebastiano Costa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Campania (Italy). His research interests focus on the motivational processes and emotional dynamics underlying the relation between contextual factor and psychological well‐being in several settings.

Sonia Ingoglia

Sonia Ingoglia is an Assistant Professor of Methodology of Psychological Research at the Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement of the University of Palermo (Italy). Her research interests focus on the validation of psychometric measures and the development of emotional autonomy in adolescence.

Francesca Liga

Francesca Liga is Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (DIMED) of the University of Messina (Italy). Her research areas focus on different aspects of developmental psychology, particularly regarding risk and protective factors in adolescence and the process of adolescents’ individuation.