Do Morality and Self-Control Protect from Criminogenic Peer Influence? Testing Multidimensional Person–Environment Interactions

Kurzfassung/Abstract

The present study examines whether the effect of involvement with delinquent friends on young people’s criminal activity is contingent on adolescents’ personal morality and their capacity for self-control and how these enduring properties work together in determining youths’ vulnerability to peer influence. The corresponding person–environment interactions are tested based on a longitudinal student survey from Austria. Findings reveal conditional peer effects. The significance of crime-prone friends decreases as morality gets stronger and self-control gets higher. Thereby, self-control seems to modify criminogenic peer effects particularly among youths of weak morality. We find evidence of a three-way interaction according to which high trait self-control protects against detrimental peer influence primarily among individuals who have poorly internalized law-consistent moral rules. Such an interplay is consistent with theoretical reflections regarding a moral filtering of action alternatives and a subsidiary relevance of self-control.