Abstract
Adolescent friendships that promote problem behavior are often chosen in middle school. The current study examines the unintended impact of a randomized school-based intervention on the selection of friends in middle school, as well as on observations of deviant talk with friends 5 years later. Participants included 998 middle school students (526 boys and 472 girls) recruited at the onset of middle school (age 11–12 years) from three public middle schools participating in the Family Check-up model intervention. The current study focuses only on the effects of the SHAPe curriculum—one level of the Family Check-up model—on friendship choices. Participants nominated friends and completed measures of deviant peer affiliation. Approximately half of the sample (n = 500) was randomly assigned to the intervention, and the other half (n = 498) comprised the control group within each school. The results indicate that the SHAPe curriculum affected friend selection within school 1 but not within schools 2 or 3. The effects of friend selection in school 1 translated into reductions in observed deviancy training 5 years later (age 16–17 years). By coupling longitudinal social network analysis with a randomized intervention study, the current findings provide initial evidence that a randomized public middle school intervention can disrupt the formation of deviant peer groups and diminish levels of adolescent deviance 5 years later.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the contribution of the Project Alliance staff, Portland public schools, and participating youths and families.
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Funding
Thomas J. Dishion received support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA07031) and (DA13773). Mark Van Ryzin received support from a grant awarded to Elizabeth A. Stormshak from the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH20012).
Ethical Approval
The current study has been conducted in accordance with APA ethical guidelines for the participation of human subjects and a University Institutional Review Board approved the study that the data were drawn from.
Informed Consent
Informed consent procedures for human subjects were employed in accordance with APA ethical guidelines for the participation of human subjects and a University Institutional Review Board approved the informed consent procedures used in the current study.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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DeLay, D., Ha, T., Van Ryzin, M. et al. Changing Friend Selection in Middle School: A Social Network Analysis of a Randomized Intervention Study Designed to Prevent Adolescent Problem Behavior. Prev Sci 17, 285–294 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0605-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0605-4