Do Morality and Self-Control Protect from Criminogenic Peer Influence? Testing Multidimensional Person–Environment Interactions

Abstract

The present study examines whether the effect of involvement with delinquent friends on young people’s criminal activity is contingent on adolescents’ personal morality and their capacity for self-control and how these enduring properties work together in determining youths’ vulnerability to peer influence. The corresponding person–environment interactions are tested based on a longitudinal student survey from Austria. Findings reveal conditional peer effects. The significance of crime-prone friends decreases as morality gets stronger and self-control gets higher. Thereby, self-control seems to modify criminogenic peer effects particularly among youths of weak morality. We find evidence of a three-way interaction according to which high trait self-control protects against detrimental peer influence primarily among individuals who have poorly internalized law-consistent moral rules. Such an interplay is consistent with theoretical reflections regarding a moral filtering of action alternatives and a subsidiary relevance of self-control.