Friendship and Delinquency: Selection and Influence Processes in Early Adolescence

Positive association of relevant characteristics is a widespread pattern among adolescent friends. A positive association may be caused by the selection of similar others as friends and by the deselection of dissimilar ones, but also by influence processes where friends adjust their behavior to each...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social development (Oxford, England) England), 2010-08, Vol.19 (3), p.494-514
Main Authors: Knecht, Andrea, Snijders, Tom A. B., Baerveldt, Chris, Steglich, Christian E. G., Raub, Werner
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adolescence
Adolescents
Child psychology
Classrooms
Correlation
Delinquency
Foreign Countries
Friends
Friendship
Friendships
Juvenile delinquency
Netherlands
Peer Relationship
peers/peer relations
Personal relationships
Secondary School Students
Secondary schools
Social Control
Social control theory
Social Influences
Social Networks
Social psychology
Social Theories
Student Behavior
Teenagers
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Summary:Positive association of relevant characteristics is a widespread pattern among adolescent friends. A positive association may be caused by the selection of similar others as friends and by the deselection of dissimilar ones, but also by influence processes where friends adjust their behavior to each other. Social control theory argues that adolescents select each other as friends based on delinquency. Differential association theory, on the other hand, argues that adolescent friends influence each other's delinquency levels. We employ new statistical methods for assessing the empirical evidence for either process while controlling for the other process. These methods are based on ‘actor‐oriented’ stochastic simulation models. We analyze longitudinal data on friendship networks and delinquent behavior collected in four waves of 544 students in 21 first‐grade classrooms of Dutch secondary schools. Results indicate that adolescents select others as friends who have a similar level of delinquency compared with their own level. Estimates of the social influence parameters are not significant. The results are consistent with social control theory but provide no support for differential association theory.
ISSN:0961-205X
1467-9507
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00564.x