Peer Deviance Scale

Abstract

The Peer Deviancy Scale (PDS) is a specialized psychological scale designed to quantify the extent to which an individual associates with peers who exhibit non-normative or antisocial behaviors. Conceptualized by researchers at the University of Michigan in the 1970s, the instrument gained widespread application after being adapted by the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (CPPRG) for use in the seminal Fast Track project.

The PDS assesses engagement across a spectrum of behaviors, ranging from minor academic rule-breaking to serious delinquent and antisocial acts. Its primary utility lies in identifying youth at heightened risk for future engagement in deviant behavior and informing the design of targeted preventive interventions aimed at mitigating peer influence effects.

Keywords

Peer Deviancy Scale, Peer Deviancy, Adolescent Behavior, Antisocial Behavior, Conduct Problems, Risk Assessment, Psychological Assessment, Peer Influence, Fast Track Project.

Authors

The original conceptual basis for the scale was established by researchers at the University of Michigan in the 1970s. The version widely used today was adapted from the “Things That My Friends Have Done” scale by the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (CPPRG) in 1998 for the Fast Track project. Key researchers involved in subsequent validation and reporting include Miller-Johnson, Sullivan, and Simon (2004).

Purpose

The fundamental purpose of the Peer Deviancy Scale is to provide a quantitative measure of an individual’s exposure to, and association with, peers who engage in deviant behavior. By systematically quantifying the prevalence of various rule-breaking and delinquent behaviors among a respondent’s closest friends, the scale serves as a critical indicator of the individual’s social risk environment.

The resulting score is vital for clinical and research applications, allowing practitioners to assess the degree of deviance in a youth’s immediate social circle. This data is essential for developing effective interventions and preventive strategies specifically designed to interrupt the pathway between peer influence and the initiation or escalation of antisocial behavior.

Construct

The Peer Deviancy Scale measures the psychological and sociological construct of Peer Deviancy. This construct is typically interpreted as a proxy for an individual’s susceptibility to peer influence concerning antisocial or non-normative behavior. The theoretical underpinning relies on the established sociological principle that close association with delinquent peers is one of the most powerful predictors of an individual’s own future engagement in similar acts.

The scale encompasses a broad range of problematic behaviors, which are generally clustered into the following categories for assessment:

• Delinquent and Antisocial Acts: Items covering serious offenses such as theft, vandalism, assault, and the use or carrying of weapons.
• Substance Use: Behaviors related to the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes.
• Academic Misconduct: Actions including skipping school, cheating, and deceitful interactions with school staff.

The scoring methodology focuses on capturing the density and frequency of these behaviors within the respondent’s immediate social network, yielding a single score reflecting the overall level of peer deviancy.

Validity

While explicit details regarding specific psychometric validity types (e.g., concurrent or construct validity) are not comprehensively detailed in the source materials, the scale’s prominence and sustained use within major, long-term longitudinal research initiatives, such as the Fast Track project, strongly imply robust criterion validity.

Researchers routinely use the PDS score to successfully identify individuals at an elevated risk for developing future conduct problems, violence, and delinquency. This predictive capacity confirms that the measure effectively captures the intended risk factor—the level of association with deviant peers—making it a valuable tool for early identification and intervention planning.

Reliability

The Peer Deviancy Scale demonstrates high internal consistency, indicating that the individual items within the measure reliably assess the underlying construct of peer deviancy. This consistency is typically measured using Cronbach’s alpha (α).

Specific reliability coefficients reported by Miller-Johnson, Sullivan, & Simon (2004) across various samples confirm the scale’s stability:

• Random Sample: α = .85
• High-Risk Sample: α = .88
• Parent Sample: α = .84

These coefficients, which are consistently above the widely accepted threshold of .80, confirm that the PDS is a highly reliable instrument, whether administered as a self-report measure to students or as a proxy report completed by parents regarding their child’s peer group.

Factor Analysis

Specific, detailed factor analyses of the Peer Deviancy Scale are not explicitly provided in the source documentation. However, the organization of the scale items—which distinctly separates serious antisocial acts and substance use from academic-related behaviors—suggests that the measure may potentially tap into several distinct, though likely correlated, dimensions of deviance.

The standard scoring procedure, which calculates the total “Peer Deviancy” score based on the mean of a specific subset of 10 items (items 2 through 11), implies that these items load onto a core factor representing serious delinquent behavior and are considered the most crucial indicators of peer risk.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report (Completed by the student/youth) or Proxy-report (Completed by the parent regarding the child’s friends).

Format: A 5-point Likert scale used to measure the prevalence or frequency of specific behaviors among the respondent’s closest friends.

Language Available: English. Given its usage in diverse domestic and international studies, particularly those documented in compendiums focusing on Latino Families and Youth, translations into other languages are likely available and used in research settings.

Population Group: Youth and Adolescents (Student Sample) and Parents (Parent Sample).

Age Group: Primarily utilized with school-age populations, typically covering middle school and high school youth involved in prevention research and longitudinal studies.

Population Details: The scale is administered effectively in both general population samples and targeted high-risk samples, specifically those identified as having or being prone to conduct problems or behavioral difficulties.

Test Methodology: Respondents are instructed to quantify the number of their closest friends who have engaged in each listed behavior. The scoring follows a structured 5-point system:

1. 0 = None of them
2. 1 = Very few of them
3. 2 = Some of them
4. 3 = Most of them
5. 4 = All of them

The total Peer Deviancy score is calculated by determining the mean score across the 10 core items (items 2-11) of the scale.

Keywords

Youth Delinquency, Peer Group Norms, University of Michigan, Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, Psychometrics, Intervention Strategies, Risk Factors, Longitudinal Study, Deviant Behavior.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Peer Deviancy Scale originated in the 1970s and was significantly adapted for major research application by the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group in 1998. The instrument is frequently included in public compendiums of behavioral assessment tools, suggesting widespread use in non-commercial academic and research contexts.

For specific rights, permissions, and fee structures concerning commercial or widespread institutional use, researchers should contact the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group or the authors of the validating studies (Miller-Johnson et al., 2004).

The instrument can be found on pages 94-96 of Latino Families and Youth: A Compendium of Assessment Tools. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://www.codajic.org/sites/www.codajic.org/files/Binder-orpinas%20meassurement.pdf

Reference’s

• Chadwick, B. A., Top, B. L., & McClendon, R. J. (2010). Shield of faith: The power of religion in the lives of LDS youth and young adults. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center. http://rsc.byu.edu/archived/shield-faith-powerreligion-lives-lds-youth-and-young-dults/appendix-bmeasurement-scales
• Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (1998). Technical reports for the Fast Track assessment battery (Rep. No. Unpublished technical report).
• Miller-Johnson, S., Sullivan, T. N., & Simon, T. R. (2004). Evaluating the impact of interventions in the Multisite Violence Prevention Study: Samples, procedures, and measures. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 26(1), 48-61.

Items of the Peer Deviance Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

How many of your closest friends have: (How many of your son’s/daughter’s best friends have):

1. Taken something of value from someone else’s locker‚ desk‚ purse‚ or home?
2. Taken something from a store without paying for it?
3. Taken a car or other motor vehicle for a ride without the owner’s permission?
4. Broken into a building‚ car‚ house‚ etc. to steal something?
5. Purposely damaged or destroyed things at school‚ store‚ or home?
6. Hit someone really badly?
7. Hit or slapped a boyfriend/girlfriend really badly?
8. Used a weapon or force to hurt another person?
9. Used a weapon or force to get money or things from another person?
10. Carried a weapon‚ like a knife or gun‚ to school?
11. Drank alcohol?
12. Smoked cigarettes?
13. Been in a gang fight?

Academic-related behaviors

14. Skipped school without an excuse?
15. Cheated on tests or homework?
16. Lied to a teacher about something they did?
17. Act up and make trouble in school?