The Influence of Association
Everyone will find companions or make them. And just in proportion to the strength of the friendship will be the amount of influence which friends will exert over one another for good or for evil. All will have associates and will influence and be influenced in their turn. God's word places great stress upon the influence of association, even on men and women. How much greater is its power on the developing mind and character of children and youth! The company they keep, the principles they adopt, the habits they form, will decide the question of their usefulness here and of their future destiny.... It is inevitable that the youth will have associates, and they will necessarily feel their influence. There are mysterious links that bind souls together so that the heart of one answers to the heart of another. One catches the ideas, the sentiments, the spirit, of another. This association may be a blessing or a curse. The youth may help and strengthen one another, improving in deportment, in disposition, in knowledge; or, by permitting themselves to become careless and unfaithful, they may exert an influence that is demoralizing.
Adventist Home, Chapter 73, Pg 455-456
Proverbs 12:26 KJV 26 The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour: but the way of the wicked seduceth them.
Proverbs 27:17 KJV 17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
1 Corinthians 15:33 KJV 33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
1 Timothy 4:12 KJV 12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.