Adolescent Delinquency, Drinking, and Smoking: Does the Gender of Friends Matter?

Youths who have deviant and delinquent friends are more likely to engage in delinquency. Interestingly, most quantitative studies of the association between deviant peers and deviant behavior have assumed that all peer connections have similar effects. Yet, it is possible that peer influence may vary depending on the characteristics of peers. Using social network data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examines the impact of same-sex and cross-sex friendships on deviance and delinquency in adolescent networks. The findings demonstrate that peer association is a significant predictor of delinquency for males, although its effects depend on the gender of boys' friends. For females, by contrast, the link between associating with deviant peers and behavior is minimal once the stable characteristics of individuals are taken into account. Rather, social bonds are the most important predictors of delinquency.