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Gepubliceerd in:

27-04-2017 | Empirical Research

Unstructured Socializing with Peers and Delinquent Behavior: A Genetically Informed Analysis

Auteurs: Ryan C. Meldrum, J. C. Barnes

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence | Uitgave 9/2017

Abstract

A large body of research finds that unstructured socializing with peers is positively associated with delinquency during adolescence. Yet, existing research has not ruled out the potential for confounding due to genetic factors and factors that can be traced to environments shared between siblings. To fill this void, the current study examines whether the association between unstructured socializing with peers and delinquent behavior remains when accounting for genetic factors, shared environmental influences, and a variety of non-shared environmental covariates. We do so by using data from the twin subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 1200 at wave 1 and 1103 at wave 2; 51% male; mean age at wave 1 = 15.63). Results from both cross-sectional and lagged models indicate the association between unstructured socializing with peers and delinquent behavior remains when controlling for both genetic and environmental influences. Supplementary analyses examining the association under different specifications offer additional, albeit qualified, evidence supportive of this finding. The study concludes with a discussion highlighting the importance of limiting free time with friends in the absence of authority figures as a strategy for reducing delinquency during adolescence.

vorige artikel Neighborhood Moderation of Sensation Seeking Effects on Adolescent Substance Use Initiation

volgende artikel Who Wants to Play? Sport Motivation Trajectories, Sport Participation, and the Development of Depressive Symptoms

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We drew responses from the in-home survey even though this question was asked during the in-school survey as well. We opted to use the in-home survey version because it was only during that phase of the Add Health study design that researchers made an effort to over-sample twins. Thus, focusing on responses to the in-home survey will give us the best chances to preserve sample sizes in light of missing data concerns.

We would have preferred to control for peer delinquency, as opposed to peer substance use. Unfortunately, two things precluded us from doing so for this study. First, respondent reports of the delinquent behavior of their friends are not included as part of the design of the Add Health study. Second, while past research has made use of the social-networking measure of peer delinquency (e.g., Haynie and Osgood 2005) contained within the Add Health data as a control variable in models assessing the association between unstructured socializing and delinquency, the network data was not obtained for all Add Health participants. In conjunction with the restricted focus on twins from the Add Health, the inclusion of the social-networking measure of peer delinquency would have cut our analytic sample sizes, which already are not very large, in half. Given these circumstances, we feel that the use of the perceptual measure of peer substance use is a reasonable proxy measure for peer delinquency, albeit imperfect.

We also re-estimated the DF model after restricting it to cases that were included in the regression models presented in Tables 3 and 4; results were substantively unchanged.

Prior research using the Add Health data establishes that delinquency is under heritable influence. Given this, we elected not to estimate DF models for delinquency because it would be redundant. Readers interested in information on the heritability of delinquency using the Add Health data are referred to such studies as Boisvert et al. (2014) and Wright et al. (2008).

We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.

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Titel: Unstructured Socializing with Peers and Delinquent Behavior: A Genetically Informed Analysis
Auteurs: Ryan C. Meldrum
J. C. Barnes
Publicatiedatum: 27-04-2017
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence / Uitgave 9/2017
Print ISSN: 0047-2891
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0680-x

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