Longitudinal associations between delinquent behavior of friends and delinquent behavior of adolescents: Moderation by adolescent personality traits

Abstract

In this longitudinal study, we examined whether personality tra its (parent-rated Big Five personality traits) re nder some adolescents more su sceptib le than others to delin quent behaviour of friends, predicting rank-orde r changes in adolescents’ self-reported delinquent behaviour. We examine susceptibility to both perc eived (re ported by adolescents) and self-r eported (reported by friends) delinquent beh aviour of friends. Participants in this two-wave study were 285 Dutch adolescents and their best fr iends. The adolescents (50% girls) were 15.5 years old on average (SD = 0.8 years) , and their best friends (N = 176; 58% girls) were 15.1 years old (SD = 1.5 years ). Perceiv ed (but not self-re ported) delin quency of fr iends predict ed a strong er increase in ad olescent delinqu ency 1 year later, especially among adolescents low or average on conscientiousness. Emotional stability, agreeable ness, extra version and openn ess did not moderate associations between delinquen cy of frie nds and delinquency of adolescents. Our findings show that low conscientiousness serves as a risk factor, increasing vulnerability to perceived delinquent behaviour of friends, while high conscientiousness serves as a protecti ve fa ctor, increa si ng resilience to perceive d delinqu ent behaviour of fri ends. Our fin dings also show that adole sc ents are susceptible to, and differ in susceptibility to, friends’ delinquent behaviour as they perceive it—no t to delinquent behaviour as reported by friends themselves. Copyright © 20 15 Eu ropean Association of Personality Psychology