Youth & Society 1–22 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0044118X14563050 yas.sagepub.com Article Adolescent Delinquency, Drinking, and Smoking: Does the Gender of Friends Matter? Kenneth Sanchagrin 1 , Karen Heimer 2 , and Anthony Paik 3 Abstract Youths who have deviant and delinquent friends are more likely to engage in delinquency. Interestingly, most quantitative studies of the association between deviant peers and deviant behavior have assumed that all peer connections have similar effects. Yet, it is possible that peer influence may vary depending on the characteristics of peers. Using social network data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examines the impact of same-sex and cross-sex friendships on deviance and delinquency in adolescent networks. The findings demonstrate that peer association is a significant predictor of delinquency for males, although its effects depend on the gender of boys’ friends. For females, by contrast, the link between associating with deviant peers and behavior is minimal once the stable characteristics of individuals are taken into account. Rather, social bonds are the most important predictors of delinquency. Keywords delinquency, peers, sex differences, gender, substance use 1 Appalachian State University, Boone, USA 2 University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA 3 University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA Corresponding Author: Kenneth Sanchagrin, Department of Sociology, Appalachian State University, 209 Chapell Wilson Hall, Boone, NC, USA. Email: sanchagrinkj@appstate.edu 563050YAS XX X 10.1177/0044118X14563050Youth & SocietySanchagrin et al. research-article 2014 at APPALACHIAN STATE UNIV on March 16, 2015 yas.sagepub.com Downloaded from