"In support of the notion that the peer group feels inadequate to attempt preventive appeals, focus groups implied, 'don't tell us what NOT to do; tell what to do and how to do it, step by step, without losing the approval of our peers.' Comments like this suggest that peer acceptance far outweighs individual choice. While the 'spiral of silence' (a compounding factor which tends to suppress preventive dialogue) tends to suppress them, a significant number of urban youth individually endorse many universally accepted values. However, this position must be carefully embraced with the confines of the peer acceptance qualifier."
