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Drawing on a large sample of genetically related pairs of adolescents from the Add Health, we examine the influence of sibling deviance on adolescents' participation in minor deviance compared to the influence received from mutual friends (i.e., friends shared between siblings) and influence from unique friends (i.e., friends unique to each sibling). Multivariate analyses that control for genetic relatedness using DeFriesFulker regression (1985) indicate that after aspects of the shared and non-shared environment of siblings are accounted for, the heritability effect, capturing genetic relatedness in sibling deviance, is no longer significantly associated with deviance. The deviance of siblings' unique friends accounts for a large portion of the heritability effect of sibling deviance.
KEYWORDS: Siblings, deviance, peer influence, DeFries-Fulker regression.
Sociology and criminology have a rich and extended history of examining family and peer effects on adolescent deviance and delinquency. Research focusing on family effects has investigated parent-child rearing behaviors (e.g., parental discipline, parental supervision, parent attachment), family structure (e.g., the effect of living in a single-parent family, family size), social class, and even genetic effects on delinquency (Agnew, 1983; Cernkovich and Giordano, 1987; Gove and Crutchfield, 1982; Hirschi, 1969; Jensen and Brownfield, 1983; Laub and Sampson, 1988; Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber, 1986; Matsueda and Heimer, 1987; Nye, 1958; Rosen, 1985; Snyder and Patterson, 1987; Straus, 1991; Widom, 1989). Omitted in this discussion is the behavioral influence of other family members, particularly the influence of siblings.
Similarly, much research has examined and continues to examine peer effects with peer influence a central concept in differential association, social learning, and opportunity theories. Much of this research reports that peer delinquency is one of the strongest correlates of self-reported delinquency (Agnew, 1991; Elliott et al, 1985; Elliott and Menard, 1996; Patterson and Dishion, 1985; Warr, 1993a, 1993b, 1996, 2002). Despite the strength of the peer-delinquency association, little research has examined the role of sibling influence on delinquent behaviors. As Sampson and Laub point out (1993:104), "somewhere neglected in the peer-delinquency debate is the fact that delinquency is associated with delinquency among siblings."1 Considering the amount of attention directed at family and peer effects on delinquency, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid to sibling effects.
That siblings influence each other at critical points during childhood...