NCJ Number
204279
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2004 Pages: 366-392
Date Published
March 2004
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Drawing on national survey data, this study examined the delinquency of socially isolated adolescents (loners) compared with their “nonloner” counterparts.
Abstract
Many explanations for adolescent delinquent behavior place great importance on the role of the peer group in leading adolescents to delinquent activities. Given the importance of the peer group within this body of literature, it is surprising that more attention has not been given to the different types of peer experiences that occur in the adolescent years. This gap in research has left unanswered the relationship between delinquency and the social relations of adolescents who lack close friendships. Data from the third wave of the National Youth Survey (NYS) were analyzed to compare adolescent loners to nonloners in terms of their engagement in delinquent behaviors and in terms of their broader social environments and the efficacy of social isolation as a distinct dimension of adolescent peer relationships. Participants were 1,726 adolescents aged 11 to 17 years in 1976. In 1978, the third wave of the NYS interviewed participants about events occurring in 1978, when the participants were aged 13 to 19 years. Measures of social isolation included two questions about having a set of friends and having any close friends. Measures of delinquency, peers, family and parent relationships, and school variables were included in the analysis. Results of least squares regression analysis indicated that loners were less delinquent than their socially connected peers. However, these differences were for minor delinquency; few differences were found for serious delinquent offending. An interesting finding revealed that loners’ friends were more supportive of delinquency and were also more likely to engage in serious forms of delinquency than were the friends of nonloners. Despite this surprising finding, the general findings support prior peer-delinquency research in that loners are less likely to be delinquent than nonloners because loners fail to participate in social activities that create opportunities for delinquency. Future research should concentrate on loners and measures of peer relationships to better understand the nature and consequences of friendship ties or lack thereof. Tables, notes, references