The Moderating Effect of Type of Deviance on the Relationships among Gender, Morality, Deviant Peers, and Deviance

Empirical research indicates that males are not only more likely to associate with deviant friends, but are also more strongly affected by such association than females. Literature to date also finds that the gendered effect of deviant association is explained by the gender difference in morality, such that weaker morality leaves males more susceptible to the effect of deviant association. This study replicates previous research but goes further by utilizing unique self-reported data (N = 502) that contains 15 deviant behaviors and examines how the type of deviance moderates relationships among gender, morality, deviant association, and deviance.