title: Sibling influence on mexican-origin adolescents' deviant and sexual risk behaviors: the role of sibling modeling.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A growing body of research indicates that siblings uniquely influence each other's health risk behaviors during adolescence and young adulthood. Mechanisms underlying these associations, however, are largely unknown because they are rarely tested directly. The present study addressed this gap by examining the role of sibling modeling in explaining changes in Mexican-origin youths' deviant and sexual risk behaviors over time.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included 380 Mexican-origin siblings (older sibling age: M = 21.18, SD = 1.59; younger sibling age: M = 18.19, SD = .46) from (N = 190) families. Participants provided self-reports of their sibling relationship qualities, including modeling, as well as their engagement in deviant and sexual risk-taking behaviors in two home interviews across a 2-year span.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A series of residualized regression models revealed that younger siblings' perceptions of modeling moderated the links between older siblings' deviant and sexual risk behaviors and younger siblings' subsequent behaviors in those same domains. Specifically, high levels of modeling predicted stronger associations between older siblings' earlier and younger siblings' later risk behaviors controlling for younger siblings' earlier behaviors as well as variables that have been used as proxies for social learning in previous research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social learning mechanisms, especially modeling, are salient processes through which older siblings transmit norms and expectations regarding participation in health risk behaviors. Future research should continue to explore the ways in which siblings influence each other because such processes are emerging targets for intervention and prevention.
authors.affiliation: Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Electronic address: sdwhitem@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Shawn D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Whiteman
authors.affiliation: T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
authors.forename: Katharine H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Zeiders
authors.affiliation: Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Killoren
authors.affiliation: T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
authors.forename: Sue Annie
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.affiliation: T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Updegraff
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D012801:Sibling Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D035781:Siblings / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Deviancy; Mexican-origin adolescents; Modeling; Sexual risk taking; Sibling influence; Sibling relationships; Social learning