The nature of the interactions that occur among peer leaders, peer influence, and the dynamics of the peer reference group in the context of health, interpersonal relations and lifestyle choice were the subjects of this study. Its first stage (of two) employed a case study of a single metropolitan senior high school in Australia. Adolescent peer groups at Grade 10 (14- and 15-year-olds) were the subject of intensive study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and a limited amount of non-participant observation. Transcribed interviews and other documents were subjected to analysis using open coding (i.e., coding for as many categories or abstractions of the phenomena under consideration, observed in the data, that might fit the data) and memo writing. A taxonomic representation of the nodes resulting from the fracturing and indexing of the data appears as Appendix One. Preliminary findings from Stage One of this study as discussed, as well as theoretical frameworks which may- or may not be useful in the analysis and interpretation of those findings. The paper asserts that adolescent frames, values-sets and language are needed in order to gain access to the adolescent subculture, and from this perspective to reveal the world viewed within the social realities that adolescents confront on a daily basis. Contains 36 references. (TS)