Deviant Peer Association: Positive Emotionality and Community Social Control as Protective Factors

• In Event: 434 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Youth Aggression and Problem Behavior

Abstract

One of the most widely established precursors of adolescent delinquency is association with deviant peers (Haynie & Osgood, 2005). According to social bond theory (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990), youth who are dissimilar to deviant peers in relation to personal factors, such as positive emotionality, are likely to avoid deviant peers. Further, according to social organization theory, the capacity of community members to work together towards common goals, such as limiting adolescent misbehavior, can have an impact on the behavior of individuals within a community (Cantillon, 2006). Thus, in the present study, individual-level positive emotionality and community-level informal social control are examined as protective factors of deviant peer involvement among African American early adolescents. Data for this study comes from wave 1 of the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS). Using hierarchical linear modeling, results show that both hypothesized variables are protective against deviant peer association even when adding neighborhood violence to the model. Also, the interaction between the two variables showed a buffering effect for social control. Prevention efforts may be strengthened by including ways to help young adolescent’s establish a positive and optimistic outlook, such as goal-setting, planning, and focusing on personal strengths (Coote & MacLeod, 2012; Moskowitz et al., 2012). Further, these efforts should also involve community members by empowering them to take action in their community if they see young adolescent misbehaving (Monahan, Hawkins, & Abbott, 2013).

Authors

• Tara Elizabeth Sutton, University of Georgia

• Leslie Gordon Simons, University of Georgia