Merging the peer selection and peer influence effects: Can neutralization beliefs and cognitive impulsivity serve as links in the chain?

Abstract

The commonly cited connection between peer influence and peer selection effects was explored in an effort to understand whether cognitive distortion, as represented by neutralization beliefs and cognitive impulsivity, plays a role in linking the peer influence and peer selection effects to each other. Participants were 3568 children (51.3% female) enrolled in the longitudinal portion of the Gang Resistance Education and Training study. Data from five waves of Gang Resistance Education and Training were organized into a series of paths and subjected to multilevel multiple regression longitudinal analysis, where data were clustered by classroom. Two principal analyses were performed. In the first analysis, peer delinquency and participant delinquency were cross-lagged to form four prospective peer selection paths (delinquency → peer delinquency) and four prospective peer influence paths (peer delinquency → delinquency). These paths were then subjected to multilevel (complex sampling design) multiple regression analysis, controlling for age, sex, race, group status, and the most proximal prior measure of the outcome variable. Seven of the eight paths proved significant. In the second analysis, neutralization beliefs and cognitive impulsivity were included in the middle wave of the five-wave model, controlling once again for age, sex, race, group status, and the proximal autoregressive path of the outcome variable. The results of this second analysis revealed that both neutralization beliefs and cognitive impulsivity mediated the connection running from peer selection to peer influence, although neither mediated the peer influence-to-peer selection chain. The direct effects for delinquency and peer delinquency across the five waves were also significant. These findings suggest that the peer selection and influence effects are interdependent, reciprocal, and linked, in part, by cognitive distortion.