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Adolescents often display similar health behaviour to their peers. Peer effects on health behaviour may be influenced by the school context, and by the country of residence. According to the complex contagion theory, these effects for risky health behaviour may be different from protective health behaviour. This paper combines social network analysis and multilevel analysis to estimate the relative share of variation of risky and protective health behaviours at different levels of the population structure: individuals, peer (friendship) networks, and schools. To achieve these aims, multiple membership models are applied to estimate variations in smoking, drinking, cannabis use, and physical activity at the individual, peer, and school levels, taking into account the differences between countries. The data come from a social network survey carried out in 50 schools in six medium-sized European cities. Networks of peers were found to have similar risky health behaviour when it comes to smoking, drinking, and cannabis use. This was not true, however, for positive health behaviour, i.e. physical activity. For smoking, drinking, and cannabis use, the peer network accounted for almost half of the total behaviour variance. In comparison, the school variance was quite small for all health behaviour. The results suggest that interventions are best carried out at the peer-network level, particularly for behaviour vulnerable to complex contagion, such as smoking and cannabis use.

Adolescents often display similar health behaviour to their peers. Peer effects on health behaviour may be influenced by the school context, and by the country of residence. According to the complex contagion theory, these effects for risky health behaviour may be different from protective health behaviour. This paper combines social network analysis and multilevel analysis to estimate the relative share of variation of risky and protective health behaviours at different levels of the population structure: individuals, peer (friendship) networks, and schools. To achieve these aims, multiple membership models are applied to estimate variations in smoking, drinking, cannabis use, and physical activity at the individual, peer, and school levels, taking into account the differences between countries. The data come from a social network survey carried out in 50 schools in six medium-sized European cities. Networks of peers were found to have similar risky health behaviour when it comes to smoking, drinking, and cannabis use. This was not true, however, for positive health behaviour, i.e. physical activity. For smoking, drinking, and cannabis use, the peer network accounted for almost half of the total behaviour variance. In comparison, the school variance was quite small for all health behaviour. The results suggest that interventions are best carried out at the peer-network level, particularly for behaviour vulnerable to complex contagion, such as smoking and cannabis use.

Abstract. Turnout at general elections across Europe is in decline as it is in other established democracies. A particular cause for concern is that young people are less likely to participate than older voters. Evidence presented in this article, based on national election results and the 2002–2003 European Social Survey, shows the overall turnout rate for 22 European countries in elections between 1999 and 2002 was 70 per cent compared to 51 per cent for electors aged less than 25. The authors examine national variations in turnout for young people across Europe, and use multilevel logistic regression models to understand these variations, and to test the extent to which they are attributable to the characteristics of young people and the electoral context in each country. Variations in turnout among young people are partially accounted for by the level of turnout of older voters in the country and partly by the characteristics of young voters, including the level of political interest and civic duty. The authors conclude that both individual‐level and election‐specific information are important in understanding the turnout of young electors.

The turnout of 59.4 per cent at the 2001 general election was the lowest since 1918. It has been widely assumed that ethnic or religious minority electors are less likely to vote in general elections than white electors. Furthermore, electoral participation is regarded as both an indicator of the integration of minority communities and the quality of the democratic system. However, existing research that attempts to provide ethnic or religious specific estimates relies heavily on survey data or aggregate data. Most surveys do not overcome the problems of misreporting, non-response bias and a small sample size. Ecological estimates for minority groups are based on potentially spurious inferences from aggregate to individual data. In short, evidence of lower turnout among ethnic and religious minority electors remains inconclusive. Here we use an alternative method to gauge the level of participation among South Asian electors at the 2001 general election. This article uses evidence from complete sets of marked electoral registers from a random sample of 97 wards at the 2001 general election, analysed using names recognition software. This allows a unique analysis of electoral turnout among Britain's South Asian communities. Using religious origin to aid comparisons with other data sources, the results show turnout is as high or higher for South Asian electors than the rest of the population, but this varies by religious groups. For Hindus, turnout was significantly higher than the overall rate. Also using a multi-level logistic regression model, we find that South Asian turnout is statistically significantly higher in areas where there are more South Asians in the electorate, which is where overall turnout rates are much lower.