Gender and Serious Violence

Abstract

Applying insights from social influence literature, in combination with key elements of gender organization and socialization, the effect of friendship sex composition and exposure to peer violence on girls' and boys' involvement in serious violence is examined. It is hypothesized that the impact of opposite-sex friendships on violence will differ for female youth compared to male youth. The exceptionally detailed friendship network data available in the Add Health for a sample of adolescents (N = 14,044) is used to examine these hypotheses. Findings are supportive of hypotheses and indicate that exposure to opposite-sex friends increases females' odds of engaging in serious violence but operate to reduce males' involvement in serious violence. In addition, among females, peer influence is magnified as the proportion of opposite sex friends increases in their friendship network. In contrast, among males, exposure to opposite sex friends does not operate to suppress (or magnify) the effect of peer exposure to violence.

Time With Peers From Middle Childhood to Late Adolescence: Developmental Course and Adjustment Correlates

“…Net of these controls, and based on previous research on adult supervision (Greene & Banerjee, 2009; Osgood et al, 1996; Pettit et al, 1999) and peer group gender composition (Arndorfer & Stormshak, 2008; Haynie, et al, 2007; Richards et al, 1998), we expected unsupervised time, particularly time with mixed/opposite sex peers, to negatively predict, and supervised time, particularly time with mixed/opposite sex peers, to positively predict youth adjustment. We also examined potential gender differences in the implications of peer involvement and tested for interactions between time with peers and youths’ gender, but proposed no specific hypotheses, given that gender differences in peer influences have been documented in some studies (Haynie et al, 2007; Mrug et al, 2011), but not others (Arndorfer & Stormshak, 2008; Battin-Pearson et al, 2000; Fergusson et al, 2003; Fuligni et al, 2001).…”

“…However, the focus of these studies was on peer group structure rather than on peer group involvement. Further, the reliance on youths’ self-reports to measure friendship networks means that the results might be subject to perception bias (Haynie, Steffensmeier, & Bell, 2007) and recency or primacy effects (Eagle, Pentland, & Lazer, 2009). …”

“…First, analyses of social network data showed that, among young adolescents (8 th graders), same-sex peer groups were more stable (i.e., retained more of the same members over time) than mixed-sex peer groups, and that such instability was positively linked to group-level delinquency and negatively linked to group-level attachment to conventional institutions (Kreager, Rulison, & Moody, 2010). Moreover, middle school students who listed an opposite-sex peer as one of their three best friends (Arndorfer & Stormshak, 2008) and high school girls (but not boys) who received and gave more friendship nominations to opposite-sex peers (Haynie et al, 2007; Mrug, Borch, & Cillessen, 2011) exhibited greater increases in problem behaviors over time. Second, possibly due to unfamiliarity with the interaction styles of the opposite-sex (Grover, Nangle, Serwik, & Zeff, 2007) and an emerging interest in romantic relationships (Mehta & Strough, 2009), adolescents reported feeling more excited and being more attentive in the company of an opposite-sex peer versus same-sex peer group (Richards et al, 1998).…”

“…We also examined potential gender differences in the implications of peer involvement and tested for interactions between time with peers and youths’ gender, but proposed no specific hypotheses, given that gender differences in peer influences have been documented in some studies (Haynie et al, 2007; Mrug et al, 2011), but not others (Arndorfer & Stormshak, 2008; Battin-Pearson et al, 2000; Fergusson et al, 2003; Fuligni et al, 2001). …”

Going Along to Get Along? Interpersonal Processes and Girls' Delinquency

“…Haynie, Steffensmeier, and Bell (2007) found that exposure to opposite-gender friends increased females' odds of engaging in serious violence and reduced males' involvement in serious violence. In addition, as the proportion of opposite-gender friends increased in girls' friendship networks, peer influence increased.…”