Procedural Justice in Family Conflict Resolution and Deviant Peer Group Involvement Among Adolescents: The Mediating Influence of Peer Conflict

• NCJ Number: 223097
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 37 Issue: 6 Dated: July 2008 Pages: 674-684
• Author(s): Jennifer Stuart; Mark Fondacaro; Scott A. Miller; Veda Brown; Eve M. Brank
• Date Published: July 2008
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): R215U010016
• Sponsoring Agency: Gang Intelligence Strategy Committee
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined adolescents' perceptions of family procedural justice (how fairly they are treated by parents in resolving family conflicts) as one characteristic of effective parenting that may be linked to involvement in deviant peer groups in early adolescence.

Abstract

The study found that adolescents' lower appraisals of parents' fairness in handling parent-child conflicts were related to peer conflict, which in turn was linked to deviant peer group involvement. This confirms research by Dishion et al. (1994), which suggests that parenting practices with their children impact children's interaction outside the family. Gender was not a significant moderator of these associations. The study's results confirm the importance of adolescents' appraisals of procedural fairness in family decisionmaking regarding disagreements and sanctions associated with how the adolescents behave within and outside the family. When adolescents perceive that their parents use unfair procedures in making these decisions, they are more likely to report conflict in peer relationships and involvement with deviant peer groups. This study was part of a larger study on middle-school youth violence, which was designed to identify personal, school, and family characteristics that underlie individual differences in aggressive behavior. Approximately 1,660 students from 27 middle schools in 5 States participated in the study. Students included in the study were within the traditional age range of middle-school students (11-14 years old). Perceptions of procedural justice within the family were measured with 16 survey items adapted from The Family Justice Inventory-Youth Form. Peer conflict was measured with five items from the Friends-as-Sources-of-Stress subscale of The Life Stressors and Social Resources Inventory-Youth. Deviant peer group involvement was measured with the Elliott Deviant Actions by Friends Scale. 1 figure, 1 table, and 55 references