NCJ Number
217797
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 33-50
Date Published
February 2007
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examined factors that could moderate or compensate the link between exposure to deviant friends and delinquent behaviors in a sample of adolescents.
Abstract
In confirmation of previous research, increasing levels of friends’ delinquency were found to be associated with increasing rates of self-reported delinquency: those with high levels of friends’ delinquency had mean delinquency scores of 10.20 compared to scores of 3.20 for those with low levels of friends’ delinquency. Strength of the study was the fact that friends’ delinquency was based on the reports of the friends about their delinquent activities. The study then explored the possible factors that might have acted to moderate or to modify the relation between friends’ delinquency and participants’ delinquency. The analysis suggested that family factors, academic achievement, advanced puberty status, novelty seeking, and harm avoidance all contributed to rates of delinquency in addition to the contributions of friends’ delinquency. The circumstances that minimized ones delinquency were positive family background, good academic achievement, delayed puberty, low novelty seeking, and high harm avoidance. In addition, the study illustrated that what was likely to confer protection with respect to effects of exposure to deviant peers was not a single factor but rather accumulations of factors that might involve both interactive and main effects relationships. This study used data gathered over the course of a longitudinal study of a sample of Canadian early adolescents to explore the extent to which the associations between delinquent friends and self-reported delinquency were moderated or compensated by a series of factors including family factors, school factors, individual factors, and peer factors. Tables, figure, and references