Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Prior research has focused almost exclusively on either the delinquency of one’s friends or, more recently, one’s romantic partner in adolescence. The influence exerted by an adolescent’s parents has been studied most often from a social control perspective. Learning theory posits that the delinquent/criminal involvement of one’s significant others will lead to delinquent behavior in children and adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to present and test a conceptual portrait for the learning of delinquent behavior with regard to an adolescents’ romantic partner, peers, and parents as well as to argue for a possible ‘encapsulation’ effect resultant of multiple sources of delinquency reinforcement. Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, the additive effects for combinations of antisocial, intimate others on an adolescent’s offending levels will be analyzed. A series of censored, Tobit regression models are used to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that romantic partner and peer delinquency involvement both have significant, positive associations with adolescent delinquent behavior. Parental antisocial behavior is not, by itself, significantly related to adolescent delinquency. Findings do however suggest that exposure to a delinquent romantic partner, delinquent peers, and antisocial parents (indicating complete encapsulation) represent the combination which predicts the greatest increases in delinquent behavior. Therefore, future research may benefit from the inclusion of all possible sources of influence.