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Friendships of Delinquents

NCJ Number
166414
Journal
Adolescence Volume: 31 Issue: 121 Dated: (Spring 1996) Pages: 145-158
Author(s)
R F Marcus
Date Published
1996
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article reviews research concerning the friendships of delinquents and nondelinquents.
Abstract
Contrasting theories and corollary research have emphasized either the distinctiveness of delinquent friendships or the commonality with normal friendships. On close examination, with exceptions due to methodological and sample features, the research has been more supportive of differences in behavioral, cognitive, and affective characteristics of friendships. Greater conflict, poorer attachment quality, lesser ability to repair relationships, cognitive distortions, and poorer social-cognitive problem solving characterize delinquent friendships. There is little support for the superior quality of friendships of delinquents. A failure to find differences between delinquents and nondelinquents in certain studies may be traced to use of single-index measures of qualitative aspects or variations in the sample studied, but this cannot be taken to mean there are no differences in the population from which the samples were drawn. References