The context of socialization in the second half of the 20th century is far different than any previous socialization environment. Children in the United States and in other industrialized countries grow to adulthood in an age of science and technology. Despite these changes in the socialization environment, there has been little systematic study of the effects of growing up in a scientific and technological world on the formation of attitudes toward science and technology. The Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) is one effort to better understand the process of socialization. The LSAY will follow parallel national samples of seventh and tenth graders for four years, collecting data from the students and their parents, teachers, and school staffs. The base year for collection was 1987. This paper uses the preliminary results from the LSAY base year data set to examine attitudes toward science courses and student participation in informal science education, using a set of multivariate log-linear models to examine the structure of parental and peer influences on these attitudes. Several path models are advanced and evaluated to help explain the relationship between variables. (CW)