Best Friends Forever? How Delinquency informs Friendship (In)stability from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

• In Event: Friendship Networks and Delinquency in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood, Session 1: Peers and Persistence

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of the life course defined by high rates of friendship instability. Both the termination of prior friendships and the formation of new bonds can carry negative consequences for adolescents’ involvement in substance use and crime. Yet surprisingly, we know little about how these patterns of friendship instability evolve when people age from adolescence to young adulthood, even though this period of the life span is characterized by important turning points (e.g., graduating from high school). Using unique network data from the PROSPER study, we address this gap by following the evolution of roughly 2000 respondents’ friendships from ages 11 to 21. Results suggest that friendship dissolution is especially frequent when people age from adolescence to young adulthood. For example, only 35.4% of friendships reported in respondents’ senior years of high school persist a year after graduation. Friendships connecting pairs with similar engagement in delinquency are more likely to remain stable, especially for young people who report risky levels of substance use and prior criminal involvement. Overall, we argue that the high rates of friendship dissolution that accompany the transition to young adulthood may further disadvantage individuals from precarious backgrounds.

Authors

• Cassie McMillan, Northeastern University

• Kaley A. Jones, Northeastern University

• Wade C. Jacobsen, University of Maryland

• Nayan G. Ramirez, California State University, Northridge

• Mark E. Feinberg, Penn State University