The Co-development of Friends’ Delinquency with Adolescents’ Delinquency and Short-term Mindsets: The Moderating Role of Co-Offending

Abstract

The companions in crime hypothesis suggests that co-offending moderates the link between peer delinquency and adolescent delinquency. However, this hypothesis has rarely been investigated longitudinally. Hence, this study investigated the co-development of friends’ delinquency and adolescents’ delinquency, as well as the co-development of friends’ delinquency and short-term mindsets (impulsivity and lack of school future orientation). Whether this co-development is stronger when adolescents engage in co-offending was also investigated. Three data waves with two year lags from an ethnically-diverse adolescent sample (at wave 1: N = 1365; 48.6% female; Mage = 13.67; age range = 12.33–15.09 years) in Switzerland were used. The results from parallel process latent growth modeling showed that the co-development between friends’ delinquency and adolescents’ delinquency was stronger when adolescents engaged in co-offending. Thus co-offending likely provides direct access to a setting in which adolescents continue to model the delinquency they learned with their peers.

Influence of Childhood Adversity on Students’ Delinquent Activities: Interplay with Neighborhood Context and Delinquent Peer Association

“…The findings of this research support hypothesis 4 (H4) that associating with delinquent peers increases the probability of delinquency among other juveniles. This result supports previous related research conducted previously on incarcerated and nonincarcerated juveniles by Walters et al [145,146], Rudy et al [36], Walters [145], Ragan et al [147], Guo [148], Connolly et al [38], Cho et al [37], Defoe et al [39], and Stults et al [149]. Our findings for all subscales of peer delinquency are aligned with previous studies.…”

“…Peer groups are another crucial factor behind juveniles' behavioral outcomes [36]. Previous studies found that association with delinquent peers may increase the probability of different forms of delinquency among youngsters [37][38][39]. Peer groups influence juveniles to act a certain way by providing positive and negative responses.…”

Beyond the Situation: Hanging Out with Peers now is Associated with Short-Term Mindsets Later

“…Additionally, UUS is linked to exposure to deviant peers (Archer et al, 2022 ; Boman, 2013 ; Hoeben & Weerman, 2016 ; Wong, 2005 ). Adolescents are especially likely to co-offend in peer groups (Warr, 2002 ), and co-offending may strengthen processes of normative criminogenic influence (Defoe et al, 2021 ). This makes the effect of UUS and of delinquent peers difficult to disentangle; both imply repeated exposure to others who either generally espouse deviant behaviors, or demonstrate them in UUS context.…”