Our main objective was to identify moderators of the change in problem behavior occurring in early
adolescence. We hypothesized that peer acceptance, peer rejection, and having antisocial friends would
predict increases in problem behavior from Grades 6–8, above and beyond what can be predicted from
participants’ gender, initial level of problem behavior, academic achievement, and school engagement.
Participants with a controversial profile, assessed by an interaction between peer acceptance and
rejection, were hypothesized to increase their behavior problems beyond what could be predicted by
either acceptance or rejection alone. We hypothesized that high levels of parental monitoring knowledge
(that is, parents’ knowledge of their children’s whereabouts and activities) and having high-achieving
friends would buffer against increased problem behavior associated with risk factors found in the peer
group. We also explored gender differences in the main effects and interaction effects (i.e., buffering
effects) of peer experiences on problem behavior.
This study showed that peer acceptance, peer rejection, and the controversial peer experience (i.e., the
interaction between these two variables) predict an increase in problem behavior during early
adolescence beyond established individual risk factors. The significance of the interaction between peer
acceptance and peer rejection brings attention to the importance of measuring peer status carefully,
because certain computations (e.g., social preference score) may lead one to overlook certain at-risk
youths, especially controversial ones. Fortunately, we found that parental monitoring was a protective
factor for controversial youths. Antisocial friends did not have a detrimental influence, but having high-
achieving friends appeared beneficial for most students. Risky peer processes seemed to influence girls’
and boys’ problem behavior equally.
conclusion
Future research should examine whether peer experiences in middle school can predict problem
behaviors in middle-to-late adolescence, at their highest lifetime prevalence. The value of simple peer
nominations as a screening tool to identify at-risk middle school students should be considered. Also,
pairing of early adolescents at risk for problem behavior with high-achieving students in the context of
adult-supervised activities should be evaluated in the specific context of preventing adolescents’
problem behavior. Further studies investigating the mediation processes that may explain the association
between peer experiences and problem behavior are warranted. Specifically, microsocial processes, such
as parent–child interactions that underlie different levels of monitoring, would contribute to the design
of adequate interventions for at-risk adolescents
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060795/
