Abstract
Despite being one of the least studied components of social influence, positive peer associations have much to offer social learning theories of crime. The purpose of the current investigation was to determine whether positive peer associations moderate the peer influence effect central to social learning theory. Data provided by 3869 (1970 boys, 1899 girls) members of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) were used to test the hypothesis that positive peer associations interact with components of peer influence to protect adolescents against future delinquency. A simple mediation analysis confirmed the existence of a significant indirect effect running from peer delinquency, to low empathy, to participant delinquency. When positive peer associations were added to the model as moderators, they achieved a significant negative moderating effect on the peer delinquency–low empathy path and a significant positive moderating effect on the low empathy–participant delinquency path. In this study, positive peer associations increased empathy in children with fewer delinquent peer associations and decreased offending in children with lower levels of empathy. Given evidence of their ability to inhibit negative peer influence and promote empathy in the service of reduced delinquency, positive peer associations deserve more attention from social learning theories of crime than they have thus far received.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akers, R. L. (1998). Social learning and social structure: A general theory of crime and deviance. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Allison, P. D. (2002). Missing data. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2018). Longitudinal study of Australian children data user guide – December 2018. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Bonta, J., & Andrews, D. (2017). The psychology of criminal conduct (6th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Catalano, R. F., Kosterman, R., Hawkins, J. D., Newcomb, M. D., & Abbott, R. D. (1996). Modeling the etiology of adolescent substance use: A test of the social development model. Journal of Drug Issues, 26, 429–455.
Cole, D. A., & Maxwell, S. E. (2003). Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: Questions and tips in the use of structural equation modeling. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 558–577.
Collins, L. M., Schafer, J. L., & Kam, C. M. (2001). A comparison of inclusive and restrictive strategies in modern missing data procedures. Psychological Methods, 6, 330–351.
Costello, B. J., & Hope, T. L. (2016). Peer pressure, peer prevention: The role of friends in crime and conformity. New York: Routledge.
Dishion, T. J., Spracklen, K. M., Andrews, D. W., & Patterson, G. R. (1996). Deviancy training in male adolescent friendships. Behavior Therapy, 27, 373–390.
Dynes, M. E., Domoff, S. E., Hassan, S., Tompsett, C. J., & Amrhein, K. E. (2015). The influence of co-offending within a moderated mediation model of parent and peer predictors of delinquency. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 3516–3525.
Elwert, F., & Winship, C. (2014). Endogenous selection bias: The problem of conditioning on a collider variable. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 31–53.
Farrington, D. P. (2007). Childhood risk factors and risk-focused prevention. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan, & R Reiner (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminology (4th ed., pp. 602–640). Oxford: University of Oxford Press.
Farrington, D. P., Ttofi, M. M., & Piquero, A. R. (2016). Risk, promotive, and protective factors in youth offending: Results from the Cambridge study in delinquency development. Journal of Criminal Justice, 45, 63–70.
Fleming, C. B., Catalano, R. F., Mazza, J. J., Brown, E. C., Haggerty, K. P., & Harachi, T. W. (2008). Misbehavior in school, and delinquency from the end of elementary school through the beginning of high school: A test of social development model hypotheses. Journal of Early Adolescence, 28, 277–303.
Gallardo, L. O., Barrasa, A., & Guevara-Viejo, F. (2016). Positive peer relationships and academic achievement across early and midadolescence. Social Behavior and Personality, 44, 1637–1648.
Gifford-Smith, M., Dodge, K. A., Dishion, T. J., & McCord, J. (2005). Peer influence in children and adolescents: Crossing the bridge from developmental to intervention science. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33, 255–265.
Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581–586.
Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Haynie, D. L., & Osgood, D. W. (2005). Reconsidering peers and delinquency: How do peers matter? Social Forces, 84, 1109–1130.
Hirschi, T. (1969). The causes of delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hoeve, M., Dubas, J. S., Eichelsheim, V. L., van der Laan, P. H., Smeenk, W., & Gerris, J. R. M. (2009). The relationship between parenting and delinquency: A meta-analysis. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37, 749–775.
Kenny, D. A. (2013). Mediation: Sensitivity analysis [webinar]. Retrieved from http://davidakenny.net/webinars/Mediation/Sensitivity/Sensitivity.html.
Matsueda, R. L., & Anderson, K. (1998). The dynamics of delinquent peers and delinquent behavior. Criminology, 36, 269–308.
McGloin, J. M. (2009). Delinquency balance: Revisiting peer influence. Criminology, 47, 439–477.
Meehl, P. E. (1992). Factors and taxa, traits and types, differences of degree and differences in kind. Journal of Personality, 60, 266–274.
Morenoff, J. D., Sampson, R. J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (2001). Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence. Criminology, 39, 517–560.
Moses, J. O., & Villodas, M. T. (2017). The potential protective role of peer relationships on school engagement in at-risk adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46, 2255–2272.
Muthén, B. (2010, April 8). Missing data modeling: Multivariate normality. Mplus Discussion Board [Online forum comment] Retrieved from http://www.statmodel.com/discussion/messages/22/5308.html?1279319060.
Muthén, B., & Muthén, L. (1997-2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.). Los Angeles: Author.
O’Donnell, A. W., & Barber, B. L. (2018). Exploring the association between adolescent sports participation and externalising behaviours: The moderating role of prosocial and risky peers. Australian Journal of Psychology, 70, 361–368.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–903.
Preacher, K. J. (2015). Advances in mediation analysis: A survey and synthesis of new developments. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 825–852.
Rucker, D. D., Preacher, K. J., Tormala, Z. L., & Petty, R. E. (2011). Mediation analysis in social psychology: Current practices and new recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 359–371.
Shadish, W. R., Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston: Mifflin.
Shamay-Tsoory, S. C., Aharon-Peretz, J., & Perry, D. (2009). Two systems for empathy: A double dissociation between emotional and cognitive empathy in inferior frontal gyrus versus ventromedial prefrontal lesions. Brain, 132, 617–627.
Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2000). Parental monitoring: A reinterpretation. Child Development, 71, 1072–1085.
Sutherland, E. H. (1947). Principles of criminology (4th ed.). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.
Walters, G. D. (2015). Proactive criminal thinking and the transmission of differential association: A cross-lagged multi-wave path analysis. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42, 1128–1144.
Walters, G. D. (2016). Friends, cognition, and delinquency: Proactive and reactive criminal thinking as mediators of the peer influence and peer selection effects among male delinquents. Justice Quarterly, 33, 1055–1079.
Walters, G. D. (2017). Modelling the criminal lifestyle: Theorizing at the edge of chaos. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Walters, G. D. (2018). Resistance to peer influence and crime desistance in emerging adulthood: A moderated mediation analysis. Law and Human Behavior, 42, 520–530.
Walters, G. D. (2019a). Gang influence: Mediating the gang–delinquency relationship with proactive criminal thinking. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36, 1044–1062.
Walters, G. D. (2019b). Peer influence or projection bias? Predicting respondent delinquency with perceptual measures of peer delinquency in 22 samples. Journal of Adolescence, 70, 1–12.
Walters, G. D. (in press). Prosocial peers as risk, protective, and promotive factors for the prevention of delinquency and drug use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. On-line first: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01058-3.
Walters, G. D., & Espelage, D. L. (2018). Resurrecting the empathy–bullying relationship with a pro-bullying attitudes mediator: The Lazarus effect in mediation research. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 46, 1229–1239.
Wang, C., Williams, K. E., Shahaeian, A., & Harrison, L. J. (2018). Early predictors of escalating internalizing problems across middle childhood. School Psychology Quarterly, 33, 200–212.
Warr, M. (2002). Companions in crime: The social aspects of criminal conduct. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, L. R., & Anthony, E. K. (2015). A model of positive family and peer relationships on adolescent functioning. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 658–667.
You, S., & Kim, A. Y. (2016). Understanding aggression through attachment and social emotional competence in Korean middle school students. School Psychology International, 37, 225–270.
Young, J. T. N., Rebellon, C. J., Barnes, J. C., & Weerman, F. M. (2013). Unpacking the black box of peer similarity in deviance: Understanding the mechanisms linking personal behavior, peer behavior, and perceptions. Criminology, 52, 60–86.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Walters, G.D. Positive Peers—The Neglected Stepchildren of Social Influence Theories of Crime. J Abnorm Child Psychol 48, 719–732 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00630-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-020-00630-x