The role of parenting and personal characteristics on deviant peer association among European American and Latino adolescents

Abstract

This study examined both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting (positive and negative) and adolescents’ personal characteristics (religiosity, social initiative, aggression, depression) in relation to perceived deviant peer association for European American and Latino adolescents. Using structural equation modeling, adolescents’ reports of positive or negative mothering and fathering were found to be related to adolescents’ personal characteristics, and these characteristics were, in turn, related to perceived deviant peer association. Ethnic differences in means were found in both parenting and outcome variables, with European American adolescents reporting higher levels of positive parenting and social initiative, and lower levels of perceived deviant peer association than Latino adolescents. Despite these mean differences, no ethnic differences were found in the overall measurement or structural model, suggesting that this process functions similarly for these two ethnic groups.

Introduction

When examining precursors to adolescent problem behaviors, it is valuable to take a social-psychological approach, considering both personal and situational variables that interact to increase risk for, or protection against, negative outcomes. Problem behavior theory, for example, suggests that adolescents’ socialization contexts (e.g., parents and peers) and personal characteristics (e.g., personality, behavior, beliefs) interact to form a web of causation that collectively contributes to adolescents’ tendency toward risk behaviors (Jessor, 1998). Although this framework is helpful, additional process models (e.g., Patterson, 1986) have clarified the possible direction of effects between these variables by suggesting that tumultuous parent-child relationships often lead to noncompliant child behaviors, which continue to exacerbate these family interactions. Then, these children seek out peer contexts with similar patterns of noncompliance, which often is associated with problem behaviors in adolescence.

Despite strong support for these complex or circular theories of problem behavior, a large portion of the research literature has focused on peers’ unidirectional impact on adolescent behaviors, while ignoring the simultaneous contributions of various factors to adolescent risk behaviors. In addressing this limitation, the purpose of the current study was to examine the role of parenting and youth characteristics as they relate to adolescents’ deviant peer association. In addition, given the relative dearth of information on this process for ethnic minorities, the current study addressed this limitation by examining this process for both European American and Latino adolescents, as Latinos are the largest ethnic group in the United States and among the fastest growing minority populations (Guzmán, 2001).