Abstract
An extensive line of research has identified delinquent peer association as a salient environmental risk factor for delinquency, especially during adolescence. While previous research has found moderate-to-strong associations between exposure to delinquent peers and a variety of delinquent behaviors, comparatively less scholarship has focused on the genetic architecture of this association over the course of adolescence. Using a subsample of kinship pairs (N = 2379; 52 % female) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth—Child and Young Adult Supplement (CNLSY), the present study examined the extent to which correlated individual differences in starting levels and developmental growth in delinquent peer pressure and self-reported delinquency were explained by additive genetic and environmental influences. Results from a series of biometric growth models revealed that 37 % of the variance in correlated growth between delinquent peer pressure and self-reported delinquency was explained by additive genetic effects, while nonshared environmental effects accounted for the remaining 63 % of the variance. Implications of these findings for interpreting the nexus between peer effects and adolescent delinquency are discussed.
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Notes
CNLSY siblings are the biological children of each mother from the NLSY79 sample. The classification process of distinguishing between full- and half-sibling pair status involved determining whether siblings shared a biological father. In order to determine this, mothers were asked whether the father of each child was currently living in the household (which was assessed every survey year from 1986 to 2000). If both siblings had a father living in the same household they were classified as full-sibling pairs and if only one sibling had a father living in the household they were classified as half-sibling pairs. Further information about additional procedures used to classify full- and half-sibling pairs in the CNLSY is available upon request.
MZ twins who satisfied the criteria for inclusion in the present study (n = 12) were not included in the behavioral genetic models because they comprised an extremely small subsample of kinship pairs. Sensitivity analyses were conducted with the sample of MZ twins and model convergence was difficult to achieve.
Due to the dichotomous nature of the items included in the delinquent peer pressure and delinquency index, the “kr20” command in Stata 12 was used to compute reliability coefficients. The “kr20” command is designed to calculate reliability coefficients for a set of dichotomous variables, whereas Chronbach’s alpha is designed for continuous variables.
For a comprehensive review of the underlying assumptions of the ACE model see Barnes et al. (2014).
We allow the error terms for each observed variable of each latent construct to correlate with one another, a strategy that is common when using a latent variable model. This technique is employed to address dependencies or shared error variance among variables which previous research has shown to be the case for self-report measures of peer influence and adolescent behavior (Bauman and Ennett 1996; Hill et al. 2008). As a result, unmeasured confounding influences on the items used to measure delinquent peer pressure and self-reported delinquency as latent factors are accounted for in the estimated bivariate LGCM.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Roger Levesque and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. We would also like to thank Lisabeth DiLalla and Paula Mullineaux for the opportunity to contribute to this important special issue on genetic influences on peer and family relationships across development.
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The authors report no conflicts of interest.
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EJC conceived of the study, performed the statistical analyses, created the tables and figures, and drafted the manuscript. JAS, JLN, KMB, and JCB assisted with the interpretation of the employed analyses and helped draft the manuscript. All authors have read and approved of the final version of the manuscript.
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Connolly, E.J., Schwartz, J.A., Nedelec, J.L. et al. Different Slopes for Different Folks: Genetic Influences on Growth in Delinquent Peer Association and Delinquency During Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1413–1427 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0299-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0299-8