RT Article
T1 One bad apple may not spoil the whole bunch: best friends and adolescent delinquency
JF Journal of quantitative criminology
VO 27
IS 2
SP 197
OP 223
A1 Rees, Carter
LA English
YR 2011
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1413279848
AB This study compared the association of adolescent delinquency with that of their best friend and remaining social network. Findings are reported from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a multi-wave nationally representative panel study of adolescents who were in grades 7–12 in 1994. Four delinquent outcomes were examined: Smoking, getting drunk, fighting, and a variety index of general delinquency. All analyses were replicated for three distinct criteria for identifying a “best friend.” We also examined several moderating factors and potential interrelationships between the best friend and remaining friendship group. Relative to the influence of the best friend, the influence of the remaining friendship group increased with group size, and with larger absolute disparities in delinquency levels between best and remaining friends. Our findings extend knowledge on the influence of best friends, and further underscore the importance of whether peer behaviors are measured directly (from the peers themselves) or indirectly (when focal respondents estimate the delinquent behavior of their peers).
K1 Add Health
K1 Best friend
K1 Social Learning
K1 Social Networks
K1 Delinquency
K1 Peers
K1 Jugenddelinquenz
K1 Soziale Netzwerke
K1 Soziales Lernen
K1 Freundschaft
DO 10.1007/s10940-010-9103-9