Testing the effects of delinquent peers and self‐control on disruptive behaviors in the college classroom

Abstract

While many studies have examined the effects of disruptive behaviors in the secondary classroom, few have focused on disruptive behaviors in the college classroom. Also, no study has examined whether concepts from criminological theories (i.e., self‐control and delinquent peer association) predict disruptive behaviors in the classroom, controlling for delinquent behaviors outside of the classroom. Using self‐reported data from 705 college students, this study found that delinquent peer association, low self‐control, and delinquency were all significantly related to a participant’s level of disruptive classroom behaviors. These results highlight the need for further investigation of disruptive behaviors in the college classroom.

Keywords:

• disruptive behavior
• delinquency
• delinquent peers
• self‐control
• college students

Notes

1. Before sending the survey to students or administering the survey in class, the university institutional review board approved the study.

2. There was one course in which the survey was administered in a paper format during class as per the instructor’s request.

3. As suggested by a reviewer we also included the respondents’ GPA and year in school. The results from these additional analyses were virtually identical to those presented here and are available upon request.

4. We also created an interaction term for delinquent peers and self‐control. This interaction term was not significantly related to disruptive classroom behaviors and was subsequently not included in the models.