Peer delinquency and where adolescents spend time with peers: Mediation and moderation of home neighborhood effects on self-reported delinquency

Abstract

Collective efficacy is one construct explaining how neighborhood social processes lead to local outcomes, such as crime rates. Collective efficacy has been shown to be mediated by other social influences, such as peer influences, in predicting delinquency. However, existing studies do not always clearly distinguish between the neighborhood where delinquent adolescents reside and other important neighborhoods when assessing collective efficacy. The current study used a self-report survey of 186 court-involved adolescents to examine associations between the collective efficacy of the home neighborhood, peer delinquency, and delinquent behaviors. Peer delinquency mediated the association between collective efficacy and self-reported delinquency. This mediational model was moderated by the location where respondents preferred to spend time with peers, with adolescents who preferred to spend time with peers in neighborhoods outside of their home neighborhood (44%) demonstrating weaker associations between home neighborhood collective efficacy and other variables.