The Effects of Alternative Measures of Delinquent Peers on Self-Reported Delinquency

Abstract

This article examines two alternative measures of delinquent peers based on reports from adolescents and reports from parents. The authors focus on three issues: (1) Do parental and adolescent reports of delinquent peers reflect the same underlying construct? (2) If not, how does the effect on delinquency of a measure of delinquent peers based on parental reports compare with that of a measure based on adolescents' reports when the two measures are included in the same equation? (3) Given possible contamination in measurement, can respondents' reports of peer delinquency be regarded simply as additional indicators of self-reported delinquency? Structural equation modeling is used to address these issues with data from the National Youth Survey. The results indicate that parental and adolescent reports of delinquent peers do not reflect a single latent construct. Furthermore, the measure of delinquent peers based on parental reports yields a significant effect on subsequent self-reported delinquency (controlling for self-reports of prior delinquency) whereas the measure based on adolescent reports has no significant effect. Further analyses of measurement and substantive models indicate that there is appreciable (but not complete) overlap between adolescent-reported peer delinquency and self-reported delinquency.