Abstract
In the study at hand I investigate predictions from the social ability model and the social disability model, two competing theoretical approaches to adolescent friendships and delinquency. Using a social network approach we test these predictions with data gathered from pupils in early adolescence in secondary schools throughout the Netherlands. Our findings show that hypotheses derived from the social disability model cannot be confirmed at all, and hypotheses derived from the social ability model can be confirmed in part. This finding suggests that other theoretical reasons account for processes related to delinquency and friendship, and these reasons have to be considered in further theoretical development and empirical research.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Cohn and Farrington (1999), Hirschi is one of the most cited authors in academic journals on criminology, particularly in the US.
- 2.
The data collection was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under grant 401-01-554.
- 3.
For the sake of completeness, no correlations are significant when considering differences by ethnicity. Results are not presented.
- 4.
Note that social ability only refers to relational properties and does not take into account (unfavourable) characteristics of the contact person.
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Knecht, A. (2013). Friendships of Delinquent and Non-delinquent Adolescents in Classrooms. In: Windzio, M. (eds) Integration and Inequality in Educational Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6119-3_12
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