Parents and peers as social influences to deter antisocial behavior.
Growth curve analyses were used to investigate parents' and peers' influence on adolescents' choice to abstain from antisocial behavior in a community-based sample of 416 early adolescents living in the Southeastern United States. Participants were primarily European American (91%) and 51% were girls. Both parents and peers were important influences on the choice to abstain from antisocial behavior. Over the four-year period adolescents relied increasingly on parents as influences and relied less on peers as influences to deter antisocial behavior. Significant gender differences emerged and suggested that female adolescents relied more on social influences than did male adolescents but that as time progressed male adolescents increased the rate at which they relied on peers. Higher family income was associated with choosing peers as a social influence at wave 1, but no other significant income associations were found. Understanding influences on adolescents' abstinence choices is important for preventing antisocial behavior.
Cook
Emily C
EC
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, USA. eccook@uncg.edu
Buehler
Cheryl
C
Henson
Robert
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D010379:Peer Group; D012737:Sex Factors; D012928:Social Desirability; D012933:Social Identification; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D015144:Southeastern United States; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires