Understanding the role of unstructured socializing with peers and peer delinquency as mediators in the relationship of parental monitoring and delinquency

ABSTRACT

In Osgood and colleagues (1996), theoretical formulation of unstructured socializing with peers (USWP), namely, the routine activity theory of general deviance posits that spending time in situations with friends, that lack structure, without authority figures present are more conducive to deviance. The present study advances understanding of this situation through use of an initial sample of over 3,500 adolescents from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) program to examine whether the relationships between parental knowledge and delinquency/substance use are mediated by USWP and peer delinquency/peer substance use. Results showed that lack of parental knowledge leads to greater USWP, which then leads to peer delinquency/peer substance use to result in individual delinquency/substance use. By better understanding the various ways adolescents who spend time in settings of unstructured socializing with peers engage in delinquency, both parents and societal members can take steps to reduce these behaviors, which lead to deviant behavior

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• delinquency
• deviance
• unstructured socializing
• parental knowledge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Archer

Dr. Robert J.L. Archer is currently an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Nicholls State University. His research interests include criminological theory including green crimes, adolescent deviant behavior, fear of crime, and utilization of advance data analysis such as structural equation modeling.

Melinda Jackson-Jefferson

Dr. Melinda Jackson-Jefferson is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Nicholls State University. Her primary research interests join the sociological literature on crime and intersectionality that explores issues of inequality related to underrepresented populations. Her research has appeared in Democracy and Education, Crime & Delinquency, Gender and Education, Culture and Education, Pan African Studies, Economics, Race, and Policy and Sociological Imagination.

Mehmet Celebi

Dr. Mehmet Celebi is an Instructor of sociology who received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Texas in 2019. His main research areas are community integration, medical sociology, veterans, quantitative research methods, and statistics.

Tina Granger

Mrs. Tina Granger is a native of Houma, Louisiana and an Assistant Professor of Nicholls State University. Her areas of interest are Cajun ethnography, Louisiana Native American cultural practices, and education as an intervention in career choices.