From social control theory, we focus on three attributes of social bonds that could constrain or facilitate smoking��closeness, social regulation, and strain. Following from BTB06584? Bronfenbrenner��s conceptualization of interrelationships, we examine interactions between social modeling and the three social bond attributes within the four social contexts and between the three microsystems (family, peers, and school) that interact to form mesosystems (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the social context of adolescent smoking based on the ecology of human development, social learning, and social control theories. Family, peer, school, and neighborhood contexts and their relationships to each other are suggested …

Interactions between social learning and social control-related variables have received limited attention in prior studies of youth smoking, with inconsistent evidence as to whether attributes of the social bond moderate effects of modeled smoking behavior (Bricker et al., 2009; Den Exter Blokland, Hale, Meeus, & Engels, 2007; Doherty & Allen, 1994; Chassin et al., 2005; Urberg, Luo, Pilgrim, & Degirmencioglu, 2003; White, Johnson, & Buyske, 2000; Wilson, McClish, Heckman, Obando, & Dahman, 2007). When such interactions have been studied, interactions within contexts��typically, the family��rather than between contexts have generally been the focus (Foshee & Bauman, 1992; Simons-Morton, 2002).

Our study contributes to understanding of social processes involved in youth smoking by applying Bronfenbrenner��s insistence on the primacy of interactions to examination of whether attributes of the social bond moderate exposure to smoking roles models within (microsystems and exosystem) and between social contexts (mesosystems). With one exception, our expectations regarding the nature of interactions between the social learning and social control variables vary depending on the contexts involved. Within the family and neighborhood contexts, where adult norms against smoking are expected, we hypothesize that closeness and social regulation will buffer effects of family and neighbors�� smoking. Within the peer and school contexts, where the reference is to interactions with other adolescents, closeness and social regulation are hypothesized to amplify effects of friends�� and schoolmates�� smoking.

Consistent with these hypotheses, we expect that between-context interactions involving family closeness and social regulation will buffer exposure to smoking by friends and schoolmates, while peer closeness and social regulation will amplify exposure to smoking GSK-3 by schoolmates. In the exception, we expect that strain will consistently magnify the effect of smoking by others within and between all contexts. The fact that we are examining four social contexts introduces complexities in how attributes are measured and in expectations about the nature of the interactions between the social learning and social control variables.