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Precursors of Running Away During Adolescence: Do Peers Matter?
Author(s) -
Chen Xiaojin,
Thrane Lisa,
Adams Michele
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00789.x
Subject(s) - psychology , juvenile delinquency , deviance (statistics) , reciprocal , developmental psychology , social psychology , salient , peer influence , peer group , artificial intelligence , linguistics , statistics , philosophy , mathematics , computer science
Although peer influence is a salient predictor of delinquency, how it operates in the etiology of runaway behavior is not fully understood. Using data from the N ational L ongitudinal S tudy of A dolescent H ealth, this study demonstrates the importance of taking peers into account in understanding the etiology of running away. The findings suggest that peer deviance is strongly associated with adolescents’ decision to run away, independent of social network characteristics and their own deviant and conventional behavior, parental attachment, and school bonding. However, the causal process that links peer characteristics and running away remains unclear. More studies are needed to disentangle the underlying reciprocal and interactional relationships among peers, individual behavior, and social contexts such as family and school.