| This study examines how the worlds of parents and peers interact in the lives of adolescents in predicting deviant behavior. The study considers peers as potential instigators of delinquency (followwing differential association theory) and parents as potential barriers to delinquency (following control theory) is parental influence capable of counteracting the influence of delinquent peers? This proposition is tested using data from the Youth Development Study, a prospective longitudinal survey of 1000 adolescents and their parents. The results support the conventional emphasis on parenting style and delinquent friends in delinquency research. It suggests that though both of these social systems exert a considerable influence on adolescent behavior, they do not operate independently of one another and that authoritative parenting style has a moderate effect in counteracting or negating peer influence. |
Updated 05/20/2006