Examined in this study was whether a perceived lack of closeness with parents (a) would be related indirectly to early adolescents' association with delinquent friends and (b)would be mediated by a lack of self-esteem. The mediated relation, however, was expected to hold only for (a) delinquent early adolescents who might be attracted to delinquent friends because of the similarity of behavioral characteristics or (b) early adolescents who are rejected by the majority of their peers. Using a sample of 267 boys and girls, the results showed that self-esteem mediated the relation between perceived closeness with parents at Time 1 and affiliation with delinquent friends at Time 2 but only for those who were rejected by the majority of their peers.
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