Social Norms and Externalizing Behavior Among Adolescents: Does Level of Risk Matter?

Background/Significance: Few studies have explored the association between social norms and adolescent externalizing behavior, which is problematic given the potential salience of social norms approaches for addressing delinquency and aggression (World Health Organization, 2010). In addition, although social norms approaches for substance use have been implemented with individuals at multiple levels of risk (DeJong et al., 2006; Larimer et al., 2001; Neighbors et al., 2004), there is a dearth of research exploring the extent to which social norms impact externalizing behavior among adolescents with various levels of risk. Based on these gaps in the literature, the current study compared the characteristics of Teen Court youth with a community sample, identified the individual and social norm factors associated with externalizing behavior, and tested whether level of risk moderated the relationship between individual / social norms factors and externalizing behavior.

 

Methods: The current study was conducted using data from the North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center (NC-YVPC) study, a longitudinal study on youth violence in two rural counties in the Southeastern United States. Two distinct NC-YVPC samples were used in the current study: (1) community sample - a random sample of students from 28 public middle schools and 12 public high schools in the rural counties, and (2) high-risk sample - a sample of first-time juvenile offenders who were referred to a Teen Court diversion program located in one of the two rural counties. Using multiple regression with interaction terms, the relative salience of individual factors (i.e., susceptibility to peer pressure, parent-adolescent conflict, and internalizing symptoms) and social norms (i.e., perceived community criminal behavior and perceived peer delinquency) for a community sample of rural youth were compared to a sample of rural youth who were referred to a juvenile justice diversion program.

 

Results: In terms of individual factors, susceptibility to peer pressure, parent-adolescent conflict, and internalizing symptoms were significantly and positively associated with externalizing behavior (p < .001). In terms of social norms factors, perceived community criminal behavior and perceived peer delinquency were significantly and positively associated with externalizing behavior (p < .001). In addition, two interaction terms were significant: Teen Court x internalizing symptoms (p < .001) and Teen Court x perceived peer delinquency (p < .01). A third interaction term, Teen Court x perceived community criminal behavior, displayed a significant trend (p < .10).

 

Implications: A pattern of interaction effects indicated that whereas internalizing symptoms (an individual factor) revealed a stronger association with externalizing behavior for the community sample, perceived community criminal behavior and perceived peer delinquency (social norms factors) showed a stronger association with externalizing behavior for the higher-risk Teen Court sample. In line with the prevention framework, this pattern of results suggests that associations between risk factors and externalizing behavior vary based on level of risk and thus different prevention approaches are warranted for different subgroups based on their levels of risk. Social norms interventions may be particularly useful for adolescents at-risk for delinquency.