Poster #221 - Do Classroom Norms Moderate Delinquent Youths’ Friendship Experiences?

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Research has consistently demonstrated the similarity between individuals’ delinquency and that of their friends (Haynie, 2001). According to the attraction paradigm (Byrne, 1971), this phenomenon may be explained by individuals’ tendency to be drawn to similar others. However, results regarding selection and maintenance processes within delinquent friendships are inconsistent across studies (Baerveldt et al., 2008). These disparities might be due to the fact that social contexts in which friendship processes take place, such as peer group norms within classrooms, are typically not considered (Rambaran et al., 2013). Descriptive norms are defined as a behavior’s prevalence, whereas norm salience reflects the association between a behavior and acceptance or rejection within a group (Veenstra et al., 2018). This study examined the potential moderating role of descriptive classroom norms and norm salience regarding delinquency on the association between delinquency and friendship selection and maintenance processes.

The sample included 1017 students (8 to 13 years old, 51 % girls) in 67 urban classrooms. Data were collected in the fall (T1) and spring (T2) of one year. The frequency of students’ involvement in violent and nonviolent delinquency during the past 12 months was assessed with the Self-Reported Delinquency Questionnaire (LeBlanc, 1994). Students identified up to 4 best friends in their classroom. Friendship maintenance was operationalized as the number of reciprocal friends that remained stable from T1 to T2. Selection of delinquent friends was operationalized as the average delinquency scores of friends nominated solely at T2. Descriptive norms were operationalized as the average violent and nonviolent delinquency scores, respectively, in the classroom. Norm salience was operationalized as the correlation between students’ violent and nonviolent delinquency scores, respectively, and their social preference scores (Henry et al., 2000).

Regarding friendship maintenance, analyses with Linear Mixed Models (LMM) demonstrated a main effect for nonviolent descriptive norms (b=-.18, p<.01) and a two-way interaction between T1 nonviolent delinquency and norm salience (b=.09, p<.02). T1 nonviolent delinquency predicted fewer maintained friends throughout the school year when nonviolent delinquency was socially rejected (b=-.16, p<.05). When norms were neutral or indicated acceptance of nonviolent delinquency, no association was found between nonviolent behaviour and friendship maintenance.

Regarding delinquency of new friends at T2, a two-way interaction between T1 violent delinquency and norm salience was found (b=-.04, p<.05). When violent delinquency was socially accepted, T1 violent delinquency predicted lower levels of delinquency among newly selected friends (b=-.07, p<.05). However, when norms were neutral or indicated rejection of such behavior, no association was found between violent behavior and the delinquency of newly selected friends.

These results suggest that salient social contexts shape delinquent youths’ friendship experiences. Specifically, delinquent youngsters struggle to maintain friendships when antisocial behavior is rejected, but tend to seek out friendships with less delinquent peers when such behavior is accepted. The latter result demonstrates that, in favourable contexts, delinquent youth may befriend normative peers despite their behavior and suggests that delinquent youth affiliate with each other more due to a lack of alternative choices when such behavior is socially rejected (Vitaro et al., 2007).

Authors

• Amy Burningham, Université du Québec à Montréal
  Presenting Author

• Mara Brendgen, University of Quebec at Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Frank Vitaro, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author