Sex Differences in the Influence of Relationships on Adolescent Offending

Abstract

The impact of romantic relationships during the adolescent period has received significantly less attention in the literature compared to the influence of romantic relationships during adulthood. Specifically, how these influences may differ between females and males. As such, the current study uses four waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance study to examine how elements of romantic relationships, including relationship quality, monitoring, and antisocial influence, affect adolescent delinquent behaviors by sex. Results indicated several important findings regarding the desistance effects of romantic relationship quality, monitoring, and antisocial influence on adolescent violent and non-violent offending, and these varied widely by sex. Limitations, future research, and policy recommendations are discussed.