Friends' interests: A cluster-analytic study of college student peer environments, personality, and behavior

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Abstract
A 27-item measure was developed to assess college peer environments in terms of friends' interests as perceived by individual students. Four dimensions of friends' interests were identified in cluster analyses: Collegiate Activities, Intellectual Pursuits, Apathy or Alienation, and Traditional Adult Orientation. In contrast to previous studies that have focused on peer environment characteristics which were “proximal” to specific behaviors, the comparatively “distal” Friends' Interests dimensions were capable of accounting for variation on an array of social, psychological, and behavioral measures. In general, the Collegiate and Traditional clusters were related to a relatively conventional set of individual personality and behavioral variables among college-age men and women; on the other hand, the Intellectual and Apathy dimensions were associated with more unconventional or liberal personality characteristics and behaviors.