Adolescents’ externalizing behaviors and antisocial text messaging across the broader peer network: Implications for socialization and selection effects

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Adolescents’ peer networks provide an important context that can contribute to increases in antisocial behavior. By a process called deviancy training, peers can both model and reinforce these behaviors, thereby conveying group norms about the acceptability of such behaviors. This research examined the relationship between the proportion of adolescents’ peers who exchanged antisocial text messages and externalizing behaviors during high school. In Study 1, parent-, teacher-, and self-reports of rule-breaking and aggression were collected for a sample of adolescents (n = 167, 80 girls; 22.2% Black, 51.5% Caucasian, 18.7% Hispanic) during the summers before and after 9th grade. Total text frequency, frequency of antisocial texts, and the proportion of the peer network who exchanged antisocial messages were examined as predictors of antisocial behavior. The proportion of peers who exchanged antisocial texts significantly predicted rule-breaking, but not aggression. Study 2 examined the direction of the relationship documented in Study 1 more thoroughly. Externalizing behaviors at 9th, 10th, and 11th grade were evaluated as predictors of the proportion of the peer network that exchanged texts about antisocial topics (n = 205, 98 girls; 22.4% Black, 53.7% Caucasian, 16.9% Hispanic). Externalizing behaviors predicted the proportion of adolescents’ peer network that exchanged antisocial texts in each of the subsequent years, but this proportion of the peer network exchanging antisocial communication did not predict subsequent externalizing behaviors. The findings suggest that the extent to which antisocial communication permeates the peer group is a selection effect.</jats:p>

Honoring the Contributions and Legacy of Thomas Dishion

“…In the current volume, Allen, Narr, Loeb, and Davis (2019) push Tom's observations forward, demonstrating that affiliation with deviant friends during adolescence is predicted by coercive parent–teen interactions and independently predicts multiple types of problem behavior and poorer overall adjustment in adulthood. Ehenreich, Meter, Jouriles, and Underwood (2019), also heavily influenced by Tom's focus on deviant peer affiliation, extend this work to the context of texting, which has become an essential component of adolescents’ social functioning. The authors demonstrate that youth's proportion of peers who exchange antisocial texts independently predicts rule breaking but not aggressive behavior, and that youth externalizing behavior predicts the proportion of adolescents’ peer network who exchange antisocial texts.…”

Affiliation With Delinquent Peers as a Mediator of the Relationships Between Family Conflict and School Bullying: A Short-Term Longitudinal Panel Study

“…Previous studies have also pointed out that adolescents who often experience family conflicts are at risk of engaging in deviant behaviors (Hemphill et al, 2012;Herrenkohl et al, 2012;Hong et al, 2017). As a result, adolescents exposed to family conflicts may be more likely to establish relationships with delinquent peers who also experienced family conflict through the grouping process, in which case they may learn values, attitudes, skills, and motivations for delinquent behaviors such as school bullying through interactions with delinquent peers (i.e., theory of differential association; Alduraywish, 2021;Sutherland, 1947), or be more likely to further endorse deviant values and develop aggressive behavior patterns through peer influence effects (Brewer et al, 2020;Walters, 2017Walters, , 2019 and deviance training effects (Allen et al, 2019;Ehrenreich et al, 2019), increasing their risk to engage in school bullying.…”