Abstract

The present study examines whether the effect of involvement with delinquent friends on young people’s criminal activity is contingent on adolescents’ personal morality and their capacity for self-control and how these enduring properties work together in determining youths’ vulnerability to peer influence. The corresponding person–environment interactions are tested based on a longitudinal student survey from Austria. Findings reveal conditional peer effects. The significance of crime-prone friends decreases as morality gets stronger and self-control gets higher. Thereby, self-control seems to modify criminogenic peer effects particularly among youths of weak morality. We find evidence of a three-way interaction according to which high trait self-control protects against detrimental peer influence primarily among individuals who have poorly internalized law-consistent moral rules. Such an interplay is consistent with theoretical reflections regarding a moral filtering of action alternatives and a subsidiary relevance of self-control.

摘要

本研究探讨了与犯罪朋友交往对青少年犯罪活动的影响是否取决于青少年的个人道德和他们的自我控制能力，以及这些持久的属性如何共同决定青少年对同伴影响的脆弱性。基于来自奥地利的纵向学生调查测试了相应的人与环境的相互作用。研究结果揭示了有条件的同伴效应。随着道德越来越强，自控力越来越强，犯罪倾向的朋友的重要性就降低了。因此，自我控制似乎改变了犯罪的同伴效应，特别是在道德薄弱的年轻人中。我们发现了一种三向互动的证据，根据这种互动，高特质自我控制主要在那些内化不充分的、符合法律的道德规则的个人中防止有害的同伴影响。这种相互作用与关于行动选择的道德过滤和自我控制的附属相关性的理论反思是一致的。