نقش حفاظتی رفتارهای موافق اجتماعی بر روی رفتارهای ضد اجتماعی: اثرات واسطه ای ارتباط با همسالان منحرف

Abstract Prosocial behaviors, actions intended to help others, may serve a protective function against association with deviant peers and subsequent delinquent and antisocial behaviors. The present study examined the relations among specific types of prosocial behaviors, deviant peer affiliation, and delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Six hundred and sixty-six adolescents (46% girls; M age = 15.33, SD = .47) from Valencia, Spain completed questionnaires of prosocial behaviors, affiliation with deviant peers, antisocial behaviors, and aggression. Results showed that antisocial behaviors were negatively related only to specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Further analyses showed that deviant peer affiliation mediated the relations between compliant prosocial behavior and delinquency and aggression. Although altruism was not directly related to delinquency and aggression, it was indirectly linked to the behaviors via deviant peer affiliation. Discussion focuses on the relevance of specific forms of prosocial behaviors to antisocial behaviors and the risk of deviant peers for prosocial youth.

Results Preliminary analyses Descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations among the main study variables are presented in Table 1. Altruistic prosocial behaviors were negatively related to deviant peer affiliation, aggression, and delinquency. Compliant and emotional prosocial behaviors were negatively linked to aggression and delinquency. Compliant was also marginally (at the p < .10 level) negatively related to deviant peer affiliation. Dire was negatively related to aggression. In contrast, delinquency was positively related to anonymous and public (marginally) prosocial behaviors. Deviant peer affiliation was positively related to aggression and delinquency. In addition, aggression was positively related to delinquency. Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix of aggression, delinquency, deviant peers, and prosocial behaviors. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1. Dire – 2. Emotional .66* – 3. Compliant .55* .62* – 4. Public .12* .14* −.05 – 5. Anonymous .28* .24* .20* .22* – 6. Altruistic −.05 −.11* .10* −.53* −.18* – 7. Deviant peers −.01 −.01 −.08+ .05 .05 −.12* – 8. Aggression −.10* −.10* −.19* .03 .04 −.09* .39* – 9. Delinquency −.06 −.10* −.16* .07+ .11* −.14* .45* .32* – 10. Gender .10* .23* .22* −.20* −.08* .22* −.08+ −.10* −.16* – Mean 3.43 3.47 3.72 2.03 2.40 4.74 .88 1.39 1.30 1.46 SD .86 .84 .97 .91 .84 1.18 .71 .28 .46 – *p < .05. +p < .10. Note. Gender coded as 1 = male and 2 = female. Table options In general, prosocial behaviors were positively interrelated. However, public, anonymous, and emotional behaviors were negatively related to altruistic behaviors. Girls expressed greater mean dire, emotional, compliant and altruistic prosocial behaviors than boys, whereas boys expressed greater mean public and anonymous prosocial behaviors than girls. Additionally, boys endorsed greater aggression, delinquency and deviant peer affiliation (marginally) than girls. Main model tests To examine the possible mediating effects of deviant friends on the relations between prosocial tendencies and delinquency and aggression, structural equation model tests were conducted. Using Mplus 6.1 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2010), we tested two path analyses for 1) altruism and 2) compliant prosocial behavior as these were the only two prosocial variables significantly or marginally significantly related to the mediator variable (deviant peer affiliation). The bootstrap procedure was implemented in Mplus in order to determine whether these indirect effects were statistically significant. An indirect effect was significant if the 95% confidence interval for the standard error fell outside of zero for that particular indirect effect (Mackinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002). Gender was included as a control variable in these mediation analyses. The overall model fit the data perfectly (i.e., a saturated model). For altruistic prosocial tendencies, such tendencies were negatively related to deviant peer affiliation, which in turn predicted aggression and delinquency (Fig. 1). The 95% confidence interval for the standard error estimate of the indirect effect fell outside of zero for the path predicting aggression (−.020, −.003) and delinquency (−.039, −.006). Compliant prosocial tendencies were negatively related to deviant peer affiliation, aggression and delinquency (Fig. 1). Deviant peer affiliation in turn predicted both aggression and delinquency. The 95% confidence interval for the standard error estimate of the indirect effect fell outside of zero for the path predicting aggression (−.020, −.001) and delinquency (−.041, −.001). Multigroup analyses were conducted to examine whether there were significant differences in the path coefficients for boys and girls, but no significant differences were evident. Path model of the mediating role of deviant peer affiliation in the relations ... Fig. 1. Path model of the mediating role of deviant peer affiliation in the relations between prosocial behaviors and delinquent and aggressive behaviors.