Classroom Peer Influence on Students With High Levels of Antisocial Behavior

• In Event: 2-090 - Classroom Peer Environment Effects on the Social Situation of Students With Special Educational Needs

Integrative Statement

Adolescents who associate with antisocial peers risk being negatively influenced by these peers (Dishion & Tipsord, 2011). The behavior of the peer group is thought to serve as a descriptive norm for adolescents’ own behavior (Cialdini et al., 1991). Since adolescents spend a large proportion of their time at school, classmates are a particularly important reference group for social behavior. Several studies have shown that students are influenced by the antisocial behavior of their classmates (e.g., Dijkstra et al., 2008; Powers & Bierman, 2013). However, little is known about the peer influence susceptibility of students with clinically relevant levels of antisocial behaviors. Due to problems in impulse control and higher readiness to engage in risky behavior, these adolescents may be especially prone to classmates’ influence. This study examined whether at-risk students with problem behaviors in the range of a mild to severe antisocial disorder are more influenced by the aggressive behavior of their classmates than students who are not at-risk.
Data were obtained from a longitudinal study of Swiss lower secondary school students. Analyses are based on anonymous self-reported data from 864 students in 55 classrooms at four data collection points that span the beginning of Grade 7 (T1) to the end of Grade 7 (T4). The mean age at T1 was 13.12 years (SD=0.49) and 52% of the participants were male. At-risk students were identified at T1 using the criteria of PR>/=84 in the Reynolds Adolescent Adjustment Screening Inventory (Reynolds, 2001). The frequency of students’ aggressive behavior served as the dependent variable and was measured at all four measurement points using the aggression subscale of the Fribourg Self- and Peer-Report Scales — Antisocial Behavior (Müller, 2013). Classmates’ aggressive behavior was calculated by aggregating individual scores at the classroom level.
Multi-level analyses indicate that the development of individual aggressive behavior from T1 to T4 was predicted by classmates’ behavior at the beginning of the school year (T1). The significant three-way-interaction (p=.007) between time, risk group, and classmates’ aggression (Table 1) suggests the aggression scores of at-risk students showed a greater degree of increase than the aggression scores of other students. Specifically, the aggressive behavior of at-risk students increased considerably when aggression levels in the classroom were high (Figure 1). In contrast, in classrooms with a low level of aggression, these students showed less aggressive behavior with a slightly decreasing tendency over time. No change in aggression levels over time was found for students not at-risk.
These results suggest that students with critically high levels of antisocial behavior may be particularly negatively influenced by highly aggressive classrooms, whereas low levels of aggressive behavior in the classroom can be protective. Implications of these findings regarding the support of students at-risk in the classroom setting will be discussed.

Authors

• Verena Hofmann, University of Fribourg
  Presenting Author

• Christoph Michael Müller, University of Fribourg
  Non-Presenting Author