TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescent friendship as a dynamic system
T2 - Entropy and deviance in the etiology and course of male antisocial behavior
AU - Dishion, Thomas J.
AU - Nelson, Sarah E.
AU - Winter, Charlotte E.
AU - Bullock, Bernadette Marie
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by grant MH 37940, from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) to Deborah Capaldi, and grant DA 07031 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH) to the first author. We acknowledge suggestions on previous versions of this research by Gerald Patterson, Mike Stoolmiller, Marion Forgatch, Isabela Granic, Marc Lewis, and Tom Hollenstein. We appreciate Ann Simas for editing and graphics preparation on this article.
PY - 2004/12
Y1 - 2004/12
N2 - A dynamic systems framework was applied to understand the influence of friendship on antisocial behavior from childhood (age 9-10) through adulthood (age 24-25) for Oregon Youth Study males (N = 206). Boys were videotaped interacting with a friend at ages 14, 16, and 18, and deviant content and interpersonal processes were independently coded. Conditional dyadic interpersonal processes were studied as a communication system and summarized by an index of information entropy (F. Attneave, 1959). High entropy scores represent disorganized, unpredictable patterns of interaction, whereas low entropy scores reflect an organized dialogue. Conversations of early-onset antisocial boys and their best friends were less organized and included more deviant content than those of well-adjusted controls. Prediction analyses, however, revealed an interaction between entropy and deviant talk. Consistent with expectation, males with well-organized interactions (i.e., low entropy) but elevated levels of deviant content were most likely to continue antisocial behavior into adulthood. Findings suggest that individual risk for maladaptation may be amplified by early adolescent friendship dynamics organized around deviance.
AB - A dynamic systems framework was applied to understand the influence of friendship on antisocial behavior from childhood (age 9-10) through adulthood (age 24-25) for Oregon Youth Study males (N = 206). Boys were videotaped interacting with a friend at ages 14, 16, and 18, and deviant content and interpersonal processes were independently coded. Conditional dyadic interpersonal processes were studied as a communication system and summarized by an index of information entropy (F. Attneave, 1959). High entropy scores represent disorganized, unpredictable patterns of interaction, whereas low entropy scores reflect an organized dialogue. Conversations of early-onset antisocial boys and their best friends were less organized and included more deviant content than those of well-adjusted controls. Prediction analyses, however, revealed an interaction between entropy and deviant talk. Consistent with expectation, males with well-organized interactions (i.e., low entropy) but elevated levels of deviant content were most likely to continue antisocial behavior into adulthood. Findings suggest that individual risk for maladaptation may be amplified by early adolescent friendship dynamics organized around deviance.
KW - antisocial behavior
KW - dyadic interaction
KW - friendship
KW - peer relations
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U2 - 10.1023/B:JACP.0000047213.31812.21
DO - 10.1023/B:JACP.0000047213.31812.21
M3 - Article
C2 - 15648531
AN - SCOPUS:8644248277
SN - 0091-0627
VL - 32
SP - 651
EP - 663
JO - Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
IS - 6
ER -