International Journal of Adolescence and Youth

ISSN: 0267-3843 (Print) 2164-4527 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rady20

Friends' Behavior, the Hedonist Lifestyle and

Delinquent and Moral Behavior Two Years Later
Chau-kiu Cheung , Tak-yan Lee , Suk-ching Liu & Kwan-kwok Leung
To cite this article: Chau-kiu Cheung , Tak-yan Lee , Suk-ching Liu & Kwan-kwok Leung
(2001) Friends' Behavior, the Hedonist Lifestyle and Delinquent and Moral Behavior
Two Years Later, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 9:4, 293-320, DOI:
10.1080/02673843.2001.9747884
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2001.9747884

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International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2001, Volume 9, pp. 293-320

0267-3843/01 $10
2001 A B Academic Publishers
Printed in Great Britain

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Friends' Behavior, the Hedonist

Lifestyle and Delinquent and Moral
Behavior Two Years Later
Chau-kiu Cheung,* Tak-yan Lee, Suk-ching Liu and
Kwan-kwok Leung
Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon,
Hong Kong

ABSTRACT
Whereas the influence of consumption of pornographic and other problematic
activities on young people's delinquent involvement has been a popular concern
in Hong Kong, it has not acquired rigorous and generalizable evidence from
longitudinal research. With a baseline study of 2,500 randomly selected young
people and a follow-up study of 1,686 of them, the present study examined the
activities and delinquent and moral behavior over a period of two years. Results
from structural equation modeling reveal that the activities and their composite
factor, known as the hedonist lifestyle, had only weak effects on subsequent
delinquent and moral behavior. The apparent contribution of the hedonist
lifestyle disappeared in the model that included friends' behavior as the
antecedent. Hence, friends' delinquent behavior and moral behavior were more
important predictors and explained away effects of the hedonist lifestyle. These
findings are consistent with the interpretation of subculture theory that focuses
on the subculture and lifestyle shared among friends as a root of young people's
behavior. Hence, the hedonist lifestyle is primarily a concomitant of the
delinquent subculture and unlikely to be a unique predictor of delinquent
behavior.

INTRODUCTION

Researchers tend to hold the ethos of fun seeking or hedonism

prevalent in modem society responsible for young people's
Correspondence: Chau-kiu Cheung, Deparbnent of Applied Social Studies, City
University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon (E-mail:
ssjacky@cityu.edu.hk)

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294

involvement in deviant behavior, including delinquency (Che

1992, Lam 1995; Schultze et al. 1991; Vagg 1998). They posit that
the ethos appears to prevail among young people to form a
subculture characterized by a hedonist lifestyle, antisocial
attitudes, and behavior. Such a lifestyle includes habits of reading,
viewing, and playing materials featuring sex and violence.
Behavior and other characteristics of the lifestyle are exactly focal
concerns of educators, social workers, and researchers who worry
about the escalation of youth problems (Lam 1995; Schultze et al.
1991). Nevertheless, the hedonist lifestyle or culture is a common
part of the contemporary social system for people to express their
nature (Parsons 1951). At the same time, the public tends to regard
it as a root of crime and delinquency and holds it responsible for
the mushrooming problems of juvenile violence and prostitution,
notably in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Standard 1999.06.17; Ming
Pao 1999.01.31). The public view also draws the attention of the
Youth Commission, which is an establishment of Hong Kong
Government. To clarify the issue, the Commission sponsors a
baseline survey of young people's subculture, lifestyles, attitudes,
and delinquent behavior. This survey enables the present study to
survey the same people two years later to elucidate paths from
earlier lifestyles and attitudes to subsequent behavior. The panel
design appears to be a merit of this study to identify earlier
predictive factors and eliminate the risk of drawing wrong
inference about the causal order.
Whereas juvenile delinquency appears to be less serious and
prevalent in Hong Kong than in many Western countries, public
concern about it is no less remarkable (Che 1992; Lam 1995).
Recent statistics reveal that the rate of arrest of people below 20
years of age in 1998 was 0.8% in Hong Kong, as compared with
2.6% in the United States (Police Department 1999; U.S. Bureau of'
the Census 1999). One reason may rest in paternalistic concern
about young people inherent in Chinese tradition. Moreover,
social order is always the most important concern in Chinese
societies (Che 1992). Thus, Chinese people are especially
intolerant for social disorder, particularly that created by juvenile
delinquents. Similarly, people in Hong Kong are sensitive to
problems of juvenile delinquency and afraid of its increase (Hong
Kong Standard 1999.04.20, 1999.05.27; Ming Pao 1999.01.31).
Researchers in Hong Kong have lamented the decline of moral
standards and rise of delinquency and other problems among
young people. They reason that the consumerist ethos of society
has been shaping a subculture among young people that pursue a

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295

hedonistic and antisocial lifestyle. As a result, young people

become indifferent to moral values and reject moral constraint on
their behavior. Young people under the influence of the
subculture would adhere to lifestyles that seek sensual
gratification in consumption of pornographic materials and other
materials featuring obscenity and violence. These lifestyles appear
to have relationships with delinquent behavior, according to both
reviews and research. With representative samples, some other
cross-sectional studies in Hong Kong have demonstrated
relationships between these lifestyles and delinquent or problem
behavior among young people (So and Chan 1992; Vagg 1998).
These problematic lifestyles include reading and viewing
pornographic materials, playing video games in the arcade, and
reading comic books featuring violence. In addition, an untapped
and potentially problematic habit, dialing to telephone lines
featuring obscenity (i.e., playing lines), also emerges to draw
public attention.
Literature Review
Research has found that consumption of pornographic materials
contribute to delinquent and aggressive behavior (Court 1984;
Zgourides et al. 1997). Nevertheless, there have also been
ambiguous findings concerning the negative effect of watching
pornographic movies on delinquent behavior (Zgourides et al.
1997). The most direct influence of use of pornography appears in
its effect on the user's approval of raping, especially if the user
was a female (Come et al. 1992). Moreover, pornographic
materials that also portray use of violence can particularly
contribute to the user's approval of raping (Malamuth 1984). In
this case, a male user would be more susceptible to the media
influence than a female. Besides, use of both sexually violent and
nonviolent pornography can also create a negative impression of
women on the user (Demere et al. 1993; Zillman and Weaver
1989). One upshot of the negative attitude is the promotion of
attitudes and behavior about sexual permissiveness and promiscuity (Zillman and Weaver 1989). The influence of consumption of
pornography on rape may be attributable to the act of modeling
and other elements of social learning, including forming an excuse
for rape (Akers 1998). Some studies have thereby demonstrated
the impact of use of pornography on rape (Demere et al. 1993;
Donnerstein 1994; Sapolsky 1984; Zillman 1989). Acceptance of

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rape myth portrayed in pornography might be an important

mediating process (Come et al. 1992). Moreover, one who has a
longer history of use of pornography tends to be more susceptible
to the influence of pornography (Byrne and Kelley 1984). On
delinquent behavior other than rape and sexual deviance,
consumption of pornography also shows an impact (Check and
Guloien 1989). Notably, use of pornography can foster antisocial
attitudes and behavior in general. Its origin of problems may rest
in its emphasis on gratification of hedonist and sensual pleasure,
thereby treating other people as objects for one's manipulation.
Nevertheless, much of the evidence has only come from studies of
students, volunteers, and other selected samples (Check and
Guloien 1989; Demere et al. 1993; Malamuth 1984; Zillman 1989;
Zillman and Weaver 1989). The generality of the findings is still
an agenda for research.
Playing video games in the arcade appears to show
relationships with delinquent or violent behavior in studies in
Hong Kong and other places (Ballard and Wiest 1996; Kwan 1993).
However, there are many studies questioning the negative effect
of playing video games on the young player's behavior (Felson
1996; Funk and Buchman 1996). They found no imitation of
violent behavior portrayed in video games on the part of the
players. However, the crucial element responsible for the differences is the place of playing video games. The risk for delinquent
and violent behavior is clearly higher for one who plays in the
arcade than is another who plays at home. Moreover, experimental studies in a laboratory setting tended to show that playing
video game could foster hostility and aggression (Anderson and
Ford 1986; Dominick 1984). Hence, the effect seems to derive from
the intensity of playing of video games. Video games in an arcade
are obviously more intense in content, including violence and
obscenity. Players there would have more intense concentration,
without interaction with and paying attention to other people. The
usual explanation for the impact of playing video games would be
the opportunity to learn from their content about violent and
other problem behavior. Just as the video games, especially those
in the arcade, emphasize achieving some goals regardless of
means, including even killing and cheating, players would
become familiar with and approve of the violent and
unscrupulous acts and practice them in real life.
Comic books featuring violence tends to be particularly popular
in Hong Kong. Thousands of young people flocked to the
exhibition of comic books created a local mob in the venue every

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297

year. These people's fanaticism toward comic books has drawn

much public attention to control over their sales to young people
(Hong Kong Standard 1999.02.01, 1999.02.08). This public concern
is justifiable in regard to the content, featuring either violence,
obscenity, or both, of most comic books. The fad for violence in
comic books (and movies) especially arose from the charm of
Bruce Lee, the Kung Fu star in the early 70s in Hong Kong. For
whatever purposes, comic books tend to regard use of violence as
a good means of resolving problems. Accompanying the use of
violence is various forms of brutality, bloodshed, and terror.
Comic books published in the United States may portray some
superheroes' use of violence to save other people and national
properties. However, this is unlikely to be a theme in comic books
of Hong Kong. The theme here is fraught with ideas of revenge,
hatred, and terror making. Its backdrop is likely a time of anarchy,
for instance, during the early republican years of China in the
third and fourth decades of the 20th century. Heroes in the comic
books appear to kill each other without mercy. Killing becomes
the norm and there is no social order. As a result of reading these
violent portrayals and norms in comic books, readers would
become more aggressive and prone to commit crime, according to
many local commentators and some research findings (Vagg et al.
1995).
Negative impacts supposed to stem from young people's
consumption of pornography and comic books and playing
video games at the arcade as a whole tend to reflect a lifestyle
theory of crime and delinquency (Goppinger 1987). Accordingly,
a criminorelevant lifestyle shares characteristics of acting alone
without supervision, planning and adhering to no obligation to
other people and society, and intolerance for stress and patience.
That is, actors with such a lifestyle would be impulsive
and preoccupied with their sensual pleasure, without taking
care of other people, society, and moral norms. This lifestyle
appears to form an important part of the subculture shared among
young people, who help maintain the subculture for each other. In
this connection, friends' role and influence become a critical
factor.
Numerous studies have found that friends' involvement in
delinquent behavior and holding of antisocial attitudes have
relationships with young people's own behavior and attitudes
(Akers 1998; Battin et al. 1998; Bruinsma 1992; Hagan and
McCarthy 1997; Heimer and Matsueda 1994; Matsueda and
Anderson 1998). Among them, some studies with longitudinal

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298
data and reciprocal modeling have shown the influence of the
friend's delinquent behavior on the young person rather than vice
versa (Matsueda and Anderson 1998). The influence of friends
appears to be a notorious factor particularly for Chinese societies,
including Hong Kong (Che 1992, Cheung 1997; Vagg 1998).
Accordingly, juvenile delinquents are likely to form a gang, which
profits from enlisting more members and levying their
membership fees. Criminal activities of gangs have been arousing
much public attention in Hong Kong, particularly because of
serious crimes such as murder (Ming Pao 1999.03.21, 1999.03.23;
Tai Kung Pao 1999.02.21, 1999.05.30). Interpretation from
subculture theory would hold that friends help create and
maintain a subculture, including various lifestyles and attitudes,
that in tum facilitates young people's involvement in certain
behavior. Hence, a subculture identified for crime and delinquency, that is favorable to the hedonist lifestyle and antisocial
attitudes, would prepare young people for delinquent involvement.
Subculture theory focuses on association with peers with
deviant behavior and personal involvement in an unregulated
lifestyle as essential factors underlying the development of delinquent behavior (Campbell and Muncer 1989; Felson et al. 1994;
Kennedy and Baron 1993; Schwendinger and Schwendinger 1985;
Segrave and Hastad 1985}. Its emphasis is on the socialization or
cultivation of delinquent attitudes and behavior in the subculture.
This deviant subculture, on closer examination, does not deviate
from principles upheld in capitalist society, those pertaining to
competition, materialism, consumerism, and individualism. As
such, the subculture is just a derivative or extreme of capitalist
culture. Consistent in this interpretation, consumers and players
of violent and pornographic materials essentially put high value
on success in video games and enjoying the sense of accomplishment by identifying with superheroes in comic books and
pornographic materials. Besides sensual gratification, these people
would also pursue success in material life and status. To gratify
their material needs, they would be ready to commit crime. In this
case, subculture theory regards the hedonist lifestyle and
delinquent involvement as results of a common source, sharing of
a subculture among friends. In all, subculture theory envisions
association with delinquent friends as a root to forming a hedonist
lifestyle and delinquent involvement.

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The Present Study

The present study examines impacts of the nature of friends and
lifestyles on delinquent involvement from the perspective of
subculture theory. In addition to exploring the impact of each
lifestyle component, it identifies the impact of the common root of
the lifestyle located in the association with friends. Besides tracing
the path to the young people's delinquent involvement, the study
examines the path to their moral development. As such, the study
combines factors indicative of delinquent behavior with those of
moral behavior. These latter factors include the moral behavior
and intention of young people and their friends. With these
factors, the study extends the scope of subculture theory to that
concerning moral development.
The essential hypotheses for the study concern the impact of
association with friends with delinquent or moral behavior. Those
hypotheses pertaining to the original version of subculture theory
expect that (1) a young person whose friends show more
delinquent behavior will engage more frequently in a hedonist life
style (HI) and (2) will display more delinquent intention and
behavior (H2). In addition, those hypotheses pertaining to the
extended application of subculture theory suggest that a young
person whose friends show more moral behavior will display
more moral intention and behavior (H3). The study also proposes
that association with friends with more deviant behavior will
discourage moral development (H4) and association with friends
with more moral behavior will prevent the young person's
engagement in the hedonist lifestyle (HS) and delinquent
intention and behavior (H6).
The study has merit over previous ones in its use of the causal
modeling approach with panel data from a large and representative sample of young reople. It also offers relevant evidence
concerning the effects o each of the problematic activities that
form the lifestyle. Previous studies, however, used cross-sectional
data and grouped the activities with many others in their analysis
of the relationship with delinquent behavior (Vagg et al. 1995).
Hence, the exact impact of the problematic lifestyle and association with delinquent friends was not transparent. Moreover,
these studies might have a problem in the causal analysis that
employed past delinquent behavior as the outcome and many
other current events as predictors. Avoiding these problems, the
present study is to provide rigorous and realistic investigation of
impacts of the lifestyle and association with friends with

300

delinquent and moral behavior on subsequent delinquent

involvement.
METHODS

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Sample
Baseline data of 2,500 young people aged between 11 and 24 years
came from a household survey in early 1997 with a random
sampling procedure to represent the corresponding population in
Hong Kong. Among the sample, 2,149 agreed to participate in a
follow-up study and disclosed their telephone numbers. Two
years later in early 1999, a telephone survey followed up 1,686 of
these 2,149 people. Excluding 158 people whose might have
changed their telephone numbers, the study attained a retention
rate of 84.7%.
The basic sociodemographic characteristics of the initial and
follow-up sample were very similar (see Table 1). Slightly less
than half of the sample were female. Their age during the survey
was about 17 years. However, because the follow-up study were
two years after the initial study, the age of respondents to the
follow-up study tended to be younger than others. It was difficult
for a telephone survey to locate older youths, who were more
likely to return home after 10 p.m., which was beyond the hours
for the survey. Because of the younger age of respondents to the
follow-up study, these respondents also attained a slightly lower
education level. Moreover, their fathers were more likely to be
members of the working class, that is, being skilled and unskilled
workers in production, construction, extraction, or service sectors.
Measurement
Some five-point rating scales formed the basis of measuring the
extent of respondents' own delinquent and moral behavior and
intention and their friends' delinquent and moral behavior. The
five points corresponded to the following scores: 1 =none or very
little, 25 = quite little, 50 = average, 75 = quite a lot, 100 = very
much (Zagorski 1999). Whereas the baseline study measured
delinquent and moral intention, the follow-up study tapped actual
delinquent and moral behavior. The baseline study also measured
friends' delinquent and moral behavior in the year prior to the

301

survey. Moreover, it measured the hedonist lifestyle with

reference to the number of times or copies of consumption of
pornography materials and comic books featuring violence, and
playing in video game at the arcade within a month prior to the
survey.

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Delinquent intention
The composite score that showed a reliability alpha of .604
included the following three items: "Given an opportunity and
out of others' knowledge, you will take a 'pill' to feel 'high.'"
"Given an opportunity and out of others' knowledge, you will
take and use others' things without notifying them." Given an
opportunity and out of others' knowledge, you will work for the
commercial sex occupation."

Moral intention
The composite score that showed a reliability alpha of .752
included the 17 items, stemming from earlier studies of Chinese
societies in the mainland, Hong Kong, and overseas, where
public, civic, or collective morality is important (Bond and Chi
1997; Ma et al. 1996; Wong et al. 1996). Examples Included: "You
will sacrifice your interest to sustain the interest of society." "You
will try to rectify much injustice in contemporary society." "You
will try to improve the moral atmosphere in society." "Things that
you will do in the future may be able to help the masses in
society."

Delinquent behavior
The same three behavioral items used in the measure of
delinquent intention formed a scale of delinquent behavior
measured in the follow-up study. They referred to actual behavior
occurring in the year prior to the telephone survey. The response
options ranged from never (0) to very often (100).

Moral behavior
The scale of moral behavior contained ten items originally used to
measure moral intention during the baseline survey. The response
option ranged from never (0) to very often (100).

302

Friends delinquent behavior

The composite measure of friends' delinquent behavior included
six items. Exemplary items were: "Your best friends take illicit
drugs." "Your best friends tried bullying." "You do not have
friends affiliated with a criminal association (reversed scoring)."
The composite measure had a reliability alpha of .709.

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Friends' moral behavior

Two items formed the composite scale measuring respondents'
friends' moral behavior. These two items were: "Your best friends
are moral persons." "Your best friends respect moral standards."
The composite measure had a reliability alpha of .548.
Because scores of delinquent intention and behavior and the
activities characterizing the hedonist lifestyle exhibited a
positively skewed distribution, log-transformation was necessary
to generate scores suitable for analysis.
In addition, a score reflecting a respondent's tendency to select
oneself for the follow-up study arose from logistic regression
analysis of participation in the follow-up study on all major
variables derived from the baseline survey. Heckman's (1979)
procedure formed the basis of estimating the score, which was
essentially a ratio of the probability of participation over the
cumulative probability of dropping from the study given the
information obtained from the baseline study.
Analysis Strategy
Besides using Heckman's approach to obtain a score controlling
the possibility of self-selection that was systematically related to
the respondent's characteristics, the analysis employed structural
equation modeling to examine direct and total effects related to
the hypotheses and a holistic causal model Goreskog and Sorbom
1993). In addition to including delinquent and moral behavior and
intention and lifestyle variables, the causal model specified
acquiescence, years of education, age, the square of age, sex, and
class positions of the father and mother as control variables. The
aim of the causal modeling was to identify a parsimonious model
that was sufficient to reproduce correlations among the variables,
desirably with a Goodness-of-Fit Indicator greater than .90. The
Goodness-of-Fit and Comparative Goodness-of-Fit Indices would
have their theoretical maximum at 1.0. The higher the indices, the

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303

better the fit of the model to the correlational data would be. In
addition, a small value of the root-mean square of residuals,
desirably smaller than .05, would indicate a good fit. The
structural equation modeling applied the maximum likelihood
estimation, which was the conventional and most powerful
method given the condition of normality in the distribution of
variables. This condition tended to hold when the distributions of
variables (including the log-transformed ones) approximated the
shape of normal distribution (with reference to histograms).
Structural equation modeling fitted two causal models, one
involving separate indicators of the hedonist lifestyle and another
grouping these indicators into a latent lifestyle factor. The first
model estimated differential effects due to each activity of the
lifestyle whereas the latter examined the effect of the lifestyle as
a whole. These models estimated correlated residuals for
conceptually related items, such as those among lifestyle
activities, and moral and delinquent behavior or intention.
As a whole, the models specified the following recursive causal
paths from background characteristics to delinquent and moral
behavior two years later: background characteristics including
age, age squared, sex, the father's working class position, the
mother's working class position, friends delinquent and moral
behavior, education level; the hedonist lifestyle including
viewing, listening to and reading of pornographic materials,
playing video games at the arcade, and reading comic books
featuring violence; delinquent and moral intentional and
delinquent and moral behavior. Inclusion of age squared in the
model served to estimate the curvilinear effect of age. That is, as
it is usual that delinquent behavior peaks at the age of 15, an
estimate of the declining trend after the age of 15 was necessary
(Elliott et al. 1989).

RESULTS
Basic descriptive statistics showed that young people in Hong
Kong were very unlikely (0.422 on a scale of 0-100) to have
committed some delinquent acts (see Table 1). Nevertheless, their
moral behavior was also not high on average. On the other hand,
although the respondents did not show or intend to have
delinquent involvement, their friends appeared to have considerable levels of delinquent involvement. In addition, the
average involvement in the hedonist or problematic lifestyle was
very rare and unlikely among young people. At most, 30.0% of all

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TABLE 1
Means or percentage for the follow-up sample compared
with the initial sample

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Variable
Female(%)
Current age (mean year)
11-14 (%)
15-19 (%)
20-26 (%)
Formal educational attainment (mean year)
0-6 (%)
7-11 (%)
12-13 (%)
14+ (%)
Father being in the working class (%)
Mother being in the working class (%)
Watching pornographic material just before
the initial survey (mean copy /month)
One or more (%)
Dialing pornographic phone lines just before
the initial survey (mean time/month)
One or more (%)
Visiting video game centers just before
the initial survey (mean
One or more (%)
Reading comic books featuring violence just
before the initial survey (mean copy /month)
One or more (%)
Reading pornographic material just before
the initial survey (mean copy /month)
One or more (%)
Delinquent behavior (geometric mean, 0-100)
Moral behavior (mean, 0-100)
Friends' delinquent behavior (mean, 0-100)
Friends' moral behavior (mean, 0-100)
Delinquent intention (geometric mean, 0-100)
Moral intention (mean, 0-100)

Follow-up

Initial

48.1
17.4
23.1
50.8
16.1
9.2
20.1
60.1
12.1
7.7
54.3
24.8

47.3
17.1
30.6
38.8
31.6
10.4
11.4
57.1
17.1
14.4
50.1
23.0

0.258
9.6

0.509
14.0

0.4

0.7

1.57
24.6

3.79
30.0

1.18
17.8

2.20
29.9

0.140
4.4
0.422
41.8
31.1
57.8
12.2
63.2

0.662
6.0

34.4
58.9
14.0
61.4

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305

surveyed young people had played video games at the arcade,

29.9% had read comic books featuring violence, and 14.0% had
watched pornographic material in the month before the initial
survey.
Clearly, there were some differences between the follow-up
sample and the baseline sample. Thus, young people with certain
characteristics measured at the baseline were more likely to
respond to the follow-up survey. The significant (p < .05)
characteristics, as identified by logistic regression analysis of
response to the follow-up survey, included having friends with
more moral behavior (OR= 0.534), having a mother working for
a working-class job (OR = 1.23), and age (OR = 0.882 for each
year). These findings show that a youth whose friends who
displayed a maximum amount of moral behavior would have an
odds of responding to the follow-up that was 53.4% of those
friends displaying no moral behavior. A child of a working-class
mother had an odds that was 123% of that of children whose
mothers did not work at working-class jobs. Furthermore, older
youths were less likely to respond to the follow-up study,
probably because they were more likely to return home at a time
that was too late for the telephone survey or have simply moved
out from the original residence because of work or marriage.
Prediction of delinquent and moral behavior and intention
Structural equation modeling identified the two causal models
with a very good fit, having Goodness-of-Fit Indices of .957 and
.939, Comparative Goodness-of-Fit Indices of .902 and .875, and
root-mean squares of residuals of .030 and .046. Therefore, the
models, which had 15 and 64 degrees of freedom, appeared to be
adequate to reproduce the correlation matrix of the variables
under investigation. The good fit merited the credibility of
estimates of the parameters, which included paths coefficients,
factor loadings, residuals, and correlated residuals.
As an overview, the clearest message conveyed from results of
the modeling pertains to the adequacy of subculture theory in
explaining the young person's delinquent and moral behavior.
Such adequacy derives from two major findings. One is the
finding that friends' delinquent and moral behavior significantly
influence the young person's delinquent and moral behavior and
intention. Another is the finding that friends' influence explained
away apparent effects of the hedonist lifestyle on the behavior and
intention.

306

TABLE 2
Standardized total effects on delinquent and moral behavior
and intention estimated

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Delin- Moral
quent behabeha- viour
viour
Delinquent intention
Moral intention
Propensity to respond to
the follow-up survey
Friends' delinquent behavior
Friends' moral behavior
Viewing pornographic materials
Dialing pornographic telephone lines
Playing video games at the arcade
Reading comic books featuring
violence
Reading pornographic materials
Education level
Age
Age squared
Female
Father in the working class
Mother in the working class
It:

-.065
-.002

Delin- Moral
quent inteninten- tion
tion

-.077
.136lt

-.091lt .173lt
.137lt -.104lt
-.072lt .113lt
-.024 -.117lt
.024
.001
.040
.031

.389lt .22~
.262lt
-.001
.027 -.038
.010 -.007
.009 .010

.030
.037
.054
.005
.111lt -.196lt
.063
.005
-.026
.081
-.120lt .024
.044 -.003
-.018
.020

-.042
.034
-.036
-.041
-.061
-.106lt
.041
-.015

-.025
.024
-.325lt
-.169lt
-.007
.065
.041
.013

p < .05

The hypotheses concerning the impact of the hedonist lifestyle

on delinquent and moral behavior and intention do not generally
find support in results of estimation with structural equation
modeling. Total effects of each activity were neither statistically
nor practically significant, except the one total effect (-.117, see
Table 2) of the frequency of viewing pornographic materials two
years before on moral behavior two years later. Hence, neither
reading pornographic materials, dialing pornographic telephone
lines, playing video games at the arcade, nor reading comic books
featuring violence showed a significant effect on either delinquent
behavior, moral behavior, delinquent intention, or moral intention. As a whole, nevertheless, the hedonist lifestyle had a very
mild but significant effect (.062, see Table 3) on delinquent

307

TABLE 3
Standardized total effects on delinquent and moral behavior and
intention estimated for Model 2

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Delin- Moral
quent behabeha- viour
viour
Delinquent intention
Moral intention
Propensity to respond to
the follow-up survey
Friends' delinquent behavior
Friends' moral behavior
Hedonist lifestyle
Education level
Age
Age squared
Female
Father in the working class
Mother in the working class

-.068
-.002

Delin- Moral
quent inteninten- tion
tion

-.077
.140*

-.095*

.163*
-.104*
-.072* .113*
.020 -.029*
.117* -.183*
.005
.063
-.026
.081
-.120
.024
.044 -.003
-.018
.020
.13~

.389* .22~
-.001
.262*
.062* -.021
.038 -.324*
-.041
.169*
-.061
.007
-.106
.065
.041
.041
-.015
.013

*: p < .05

intention measure at Wave 1. A persistent effect of the hedonist

lifestyle on delinquent behavior, however, did not hold.
These nonsignificant effects of the lifestyle were primarily a
result of the presence of the common factor, association with
friends with delinquent and moral behavior. Structural equation
modeling with a model that did not ~pecify the associations as
predictors turned out to reveal significant effects due to the
lifestyle factor. Accordingly, all the total effects of the hedonist
lifestyle on delinquent behavior (.078), moral behavior (-.084),
delinquent intention (.193), and moral intention (-.155) were
significant. These effects, however, were spurious and diminished
to become nonsignificant once friends' delinquent and moral
behavior entered into the equations.
On the other hand, friends' delinquent and moral behavior
demonstrated significant effects on the young individual's
delinquent and moral behavior and intention (see both Tables 2 &t
3). Only the effect of friends' moral behavior on the young
individual's delinquent intention was not significant. The effect of

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308

friends' delinquent behavior on the young individual's delinquent

intention was particularly strong (.389). Moreover, the effect of
friends' delinquent behavior on the young person's delinquent
behavior in two years later remained significant (.137). In all,
friends' delinquent behavior showed positive effects on the young
individual's delinquent behavior and intention and negative
effects on moral behavior and intention. A similar case also
applied to friends' moral behavior.
Friends' delinquent behavior showed a significant total effect
(.256) on the young individual's hedonist lifestyle although
friends' moral behavior exhibited no significant effect (-.047). The
former finding shows that association with delinquent friends
encouraged young people's participation in hedonist activities in
a way consistent with subculture theory.
These results, altogether, support the interpretation of
subculture theory for young people's delinquent and moral
behavior. That is, association with friends with delinquent or
moral behavior was the dominant determinant of the young

.062
.216

Delinquent
intention

-.068

behavior
-.087

-.077

Friends'

moral
behavior

1-------------

Moral
.095

'-....... .307
-.252
intention

Figure 1. Significant direct effects estimated for the subculture model (Model2)

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309

individual's delinquent and moral behavior and intention.

Moreover, effects of friends' behavior displaced and explained
away those of the hedonist lifestyle on the young person's
delinquent behavior and intention. They illustrate that the
hedonist lifestyle is just a manifestation or concomitant of
association with delinquent friends, which characterizes the
formation of the subculture.
A complete causal model relating friends' behavior and the
young individual's behavior depicted the explanation of
subculture theory for both delinquent and moral behavior {see
Figure 1). Accordingly, friends' delinquent behavior was the
major determinant of the young individual's delinquent intention
and delinquent behavior directly. Its direct effect {.168) on delinquent behavior was stronger than the effect (-.068) of delinquent
intention. The latter finding indicates that the effect of delinquent
intention would become negative given the strong influence of
friends' delinquent behavior. It shows that friends' influence on
subsequent delinquent behavior was greater than personal intention. Apparently, delinquent behavior was beyond the young
person's rational control. Rather, delinquent behavior would
result from friends' pressure, encouragement, and reinforcement.
Moreover, friends' delinquent behavior was a major determinant
of the young person's hedonist lifestyle, which displayed only a
weak effect (.062) on delinquent intention. The hedonist lifestyle
made no significant direct effect (.024) on subsequent delinquent
behavior, given the dominant influence of friends' delinquent
behavior. These findings illustrate the crucial role of friends'
delinquent for the young individual's delinquent intention and
behavior. Nevertheless, friends' delinquent behavior had no
significant direct effect (-.050) on the young person's subsequent
moral behavior, given the stronger influence (.140) of moral
intention.
The subculture model also supported an important role of
friends' moral behavior, which showed significant direct effects
(.307 & .095) on the young individual's moral intention and moral
behavior. Furthermore, friends' moral behavior manifested a
significant direct effect (-.087) on the young individual's delinquent behavior. Moral intention also exhibited a significant direct
effect (.140) on moral behavior, showing that the rational or
discretionary basis of moral behavior. In all, friends' moral behavior and delinquent behavior were essential root of the young
person's moral intention and behavior.
Findings show that education level (years of education) had
significant negative effects (-.325 & -.196) on moral intention and

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310

moral behavior subsequently. Interpretation of these findings

should take into account the fact that education level correlated
highly (.836) with age. Hence, it should interpret effects of age,
age squared, and education altogether rather than separately.
Excluding the direct paths of age and age squared turned the
effect of education level on subsequent moral behavior into
significantly positive (.133). However, the effect of education level
on moral intention remained to be significantly negative (-.246).
This negative effect had its root in the negative correlation (-.211)
between education level and moral intention. These findings
showed that although a young individual was less likely to
express moral intention, he or she was more likely to show moral
behavior subsequently. Perhaps, young people with higher education were more humble regarding their expression of moral
intention than were those with lower education.
Other background characteristics displayed sporadic significant
effects on moral intention and behavior (see Tables 2 & 3). Only
sex showed consistent effects on delinquent intention and
behavior. Accordingly, the boy had significantly higher delinquent intention and behavior than the girl. In addition, the boy
had significantly higher (total fj = .168) involvement in the
hedonist lifestyle than did girls. Total effects of age (.103) and age
squared (.137) on the hedonist lifestyle were also significantly
positive. These positive effects showed that hedonist involvement
increased at an increased rate with age. Furthermore, age had a
significant negative effect (-.453) on the propensity to respond to
the follow-up survey. That is, it was more difficult for the study
to follow up older people. One with a higher propensity to
respond to the follow-up study tended to have more moral
behavior and less delinquent behavior (see Tables 2 & 3).
DISCUSSION

The study finds support for hypotheses concerning subculture

theory in explaining the delinquent behavior and moral behavior
of young people in Hong Kong. Accordingly, friends' delinquent
behavior and moral behavior proved to show substantial total and
direct effects on young people's delinquent and moral intention
and behavior two years later. In this connection. friends' influence
was stronger than that due to the young people's hedonist
lifestyle. Moreover, earlier friends' delinquent behavior also
appeared to dampen the young individual's moral intention and
moral behavior subsequently. In the same vein, friends moral

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311

behavior tended to inhibit the young individual's delinquent

behavior two years later. Therefore, hypotheses concerning
influence between friends' delinquent and moral behavior and the
young person's moral behavior and delinquent behavior receive
support. The explanation of subculture theory obtains more
support from findings concerning the influence of friends'
delinquent behavior on the young person's hedonist lifestyle. The
hedonist lifestyle in turn made a mild effect on delinquent
intention. Viewing pornographic materials, in particular, tended
to discourage moral behavior two years later. However, the
hedonist lifestyle generally contributed little to young people's
delinquent behavior. This finding appears to strengthen the claim
about the determinant role of friends' behavior in subculture
theory. Accordingly, the hedonist lifestyle is primarily a concomitant of a delinquent subculture, which involves association
with friends with delinquent behavior and no moral behavior. In
essence, friends' behavior displaced or explained away the
influence of the hedonist lifestyle on delinquent behavior. That is,
the apparent correlation between the hedonist lifestyle and
delinquent intention and behavior was largely spurious. Hence,
rather than single acts of the hedonist lifestyle, it is the
constellation of a subculture that is influential.
The important role of friends' behavior for young people's
delinquent and moral behavior illustrates some important
propositions of subculture theory. They involve peer pressure,
peer approval of delinquent behavior and denial of moral
behavior, competition among peers, and collective involvement in
delinquent activities (Campbell and Muncer 1989; Kennedy and
Baron 1993); Schwendinger and Schwendinger 1985; Segrave and
Hastad 1985). First, involvement in delinquent behavior is likely
to result from peer pressure, especially as it is not well planned.
That is, earlier delinquent intention could not be predictive of
subsequent delinquent behavior. In place of the individual's
discretion, peer pressure guidance, and encouragement become
significant (Matsueda and Anderson 1998). Second, young people
like to seek peer approval of their behavior because they are not
mature and knowledgeable enough (Cheung 1993; Vega et al.
1993). Moreover, young people, particularly who did not achieve
their identify, are eager to trust their peers Oohansson 1994). They
therefore would accept and learn from their friends' behavior.
Hence, even without friends' pressure and encouragement, the
young person would think that their friends' behavior is a sign of
approval. Thirdly, a theme of subculture theory is the ethos of
competition among young people adhering to the subculture.

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312

Young people would find each other's delinquent behavior to be

a goal for competition or emulation. On the other hand, if friends
demonstrate moral behavior, young people would rival their
friends on this behavior. The value of competition appears to be
strong among young people, who appear to learn it from school
(Felson et al. 1994; Rosenfeld and Messner 1995). Fourthly,
juvenile delinquency can involve collective and gang behavior in
which a number of young people commit crime together. A
delinquent friend is probably an ally, leader, or accomplice of
young offenders. Collective or gang crime is likely attractive
because of the law of numbers, that more offenders can enhance
the chance of success in the crime. This is the case known as
collective efficacy in juvenile delinquency (Reiss 1995).
The interpretation of subculture theory can incorporate social
learning as an important process of friends' influence. However,
social learning is not necessarily an essential component of
subculture theory. Social learning primarily refers to learning of
specific skills, attitudes, and definitions favorable to delinquent or
moral behavior and friends can function to reinforce the learning
(Akers 1998). Eventually, delinquent youths would find efficacy
for committing certain crimes by themselves and thereby develop
their criminal competence (Garcia et al. 1990; Midlarsky 1984).
They also recognize the benefit of offense and expect high efficacy
from the delinquent act (Foster et al. 1988). However, these
intervening processes are not necessary conditions for the
influence of friends according to subculture theory. Accordingly,
subculture theory emphasizes learning and sharing of delinquent
values, competitive ethos, hedonist lifestyle, and peer influence,
pressure, and approval. It does not require learning of specific
skills and definitions. Subculture theory definitely implies a kind
of learning of friends' behavior. However, this learning may not
be the one emphasized in social learning theory.
The hedonist lifestyle could be predictive of delinquent
intention and behavior in a positive way and moral intention and
behavior in a negative way. However, the predictive power did
not persist in the presence of friends' behavior as a more
predictive factor. In essence, friends' delinquent behavior was the
root of young people's involvement in the hedonist lifestyle.
Prediction based solely on the hedonist lifestyle tends to overlook
the root cause in friends' behavior and influence. Thus, any claim
that the hedonist lifestyle is a strong determinant of delinquent
behavior may not be appropriate. At best, the hedonist lifestyle
only showed a mild effect on subsequent delinquent behavior.
Any claim about the causal influence thus should acknowledge

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313

the root and more overwhelming causal role of friends' behavior

and influence.
The frequency of viewing pornographic materials on screen, in
particular, showed a significantly negative effect on subsequent
moral behavior, even in the presence of friends' behavior in the
equation. This finding may indicate that the visual medium had
more corrosive effects on the viewers than did the print and audio
(telephone) media. It may reveal the fact that the visual medium
is more vivid and realistic than others and therefore more
provocative and influential in a negative way. However, this
result appears to contradict a previous finding concerning the
superior influence of print pornography on sexual crime and
attitudes (Zgourides et al. 1997). The difference is in the result of
the exposure, moral behavior versus rape. In the case of viewing
pornographic materials, time spent on the activity is likely longer
and it thereby displaced the viewers' involvement in other
activities, such as those conducive to moral development. Nevertheless, none of the activities of the hedonist lifestyle showed a
significant effect on delinquent behavior. It is the overall hedonist
lifestyle that manifested a mild effect on delinquent behavior.
FURTHER STUDY

Whereas the present study improves on the previous local ones

using cross-sectional design, non-representative or small samples,
and inadequate measurement and analytic techniques, it does not
necessarily mean a full stop of the kind of study. The two-wave
panel study is still a snapshot of youth development in a period
of two years. It is still not long enough to portray a full picture of
development in delinquent and moral behavior in youth. Clearly,
there are ample alternative processes of youth development that
are worthy of investigation and provide supplementary and
corroborative evidence for the present study.
One of the areas of investigation would be the etiology underlying young people's association with friends with delinquent and
moral behavior. In the present study, a girl would have friends
who exhibited more moral behavior and less delinquent behavior
and friends would be less delinquent for one whose mother was
working for a working-class job. Identifying such background
influence on young people's association with delinquent or moral
friends is not enough as the proportions of variance explained
were small (5.6% & 3.6%). Moreover, there is still a possibility that
delinquent children chose friends with the same characteristics. If

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314

this were the case, the children's earlier delinquent behavior

would be possibly the dominant factor explaining their
association with delinquent friends and subsequent delinquent
behavior. Alternatively, the effect of friends' behavior would
function at best to reinforce the delinquent tendency of the
individual. Nevertheless, further study of the etiology of
association with delinquent and moral friends is necessary to
elucidate the causal role of friends' behavior. To do this, an
extended panel design that includes measures of children's earlier
behavior and experience is crucial. In case friends' behavior is
such an important predictor, finding ways to predict or prevent
children's association with delinquent friends contributes to a step
of curbing juvenile delinquency. Therefore, the extended panel
design would preferably include measures concerning the
preventive and developmental purpose of foster moral
development.
Besides curbing delinquency by preventing children's association with delinquent friends, it is important to identify mediating
processes that result in the delinquency behavior of the young
person who is under delinquent friends' influence. Clearly,
friends' behavior is not absolutely influential (total standardized
effect on delinquent behavior = .137) and its influence depends on
a number of mediating processes. Possibly, the mediating processes may alternatively include encouragement, approval,
modeling, learning, and involvement in collective and gang
activity. Finding ways that prevent these processes or dampen the
influence of them would serve to reduce to influence of
delinquent friends. One mediating process is the young person's
involvement in the hedonist lifestyle, which, however, only
contributed little to delinquent behavior. Therefore, it is necessary
to identify alternative processes that bear a more important role
for mediating the effect of friends' behavior.
There is room for further elaboration and verification of subculture theory applied to explaining young people's delinquent
and moral behavior. The present study examines the linkage of
friends' behavior and young people's hedonist lifestyle and
behavior. However, it has not addressed concerns of subculture
theory about competition, individualism, and success and their
origin in capitalism and social structure (Campbell and Muncer
1989; Felson et al. 1994; Kennedy and Baron 1993; Schwendinger
and Schwendinger 1985; Segrave and Hastad 1985). Accordingly,
the subculture is just a radical manifestation of capitalist ideology,
which become popular among the exploited class. A thorough
examination of subculture theory necessarily requires a more

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315

macroscopic approach that elucidates structural influence on the

individual's behavior.
The robustness of subculture theory against alternative
interpretations should be an area for further inquiry. Clearly,
subculture theory is compatible with social learning theory and
differential association theory, which commonly apply to explain
delinquent behavior (Akers 1998). However, these theories may
have slight differences in their emphases. Whereas subculture
theory emphasizes subculture stemming from delinquent friends,
social learning theory centers on the learning process, which may
come from sources other than friends. The present study is most
supportive of subculture theory because it shows that friends'
behavior directly affects the young individual's delinquent
behavior and the hedonist lifestyle is a feature of the subculture.
On the other hand, social learning theory would focus on the
influence of learning from friends and alternative media. However, the minimal effect of the hedonist lifestyle on delinquent
behavior lends little support to social learning theory. Moreover,
the present study has not gone so far as revealing the significance
of learning for young people's delinquent involvement. This
shortcoming should be a cause for further study to overcome and
elucidate the importance of sharing of the subculture and social
learning separately. Furthermore, further study can examine
influences of alternative sources, friends, parents, and others, so as
to disentangle the twist between subculture theory and
differential association theory. It also needs to discern unique
effects due to subculture theory and alternative theories, including
strain, social capital, social control, self-control, and labeling
theories. These alternative theories may explain why a young
individual makes friend with delinquents and become a
delinquent eventually. For instance, social capital theory would
explain that young people who are deficient in social capital
would tum to friends with problem behavior and likely become
delinquents (Sampson and Laub 1993). Similarly, social control
theory would find young people who lack social control would
drop out from the conventional institution and bonding to become
delinquents and friends of other delinquents (Kaplan and Liu
1994).
Besides the theoretical concerns and improvement in further
research, methodological improvement is necessary. A remarkable
methodological concern would be use of multiple sources of
measurement to strengthen the validity of the study. The present
study is not perfect in its measurement that relied on retrospective
self-reports of behavior and friends' behavior. These reports may

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316

not accurately recover the actual behavior in question. They at

best address perceptual measures resulting from the respondent's
own view. Whereas perception is certainly an important
determinant of behavior, it may not qualify as a genuine measure
of actual behavior. Hence, whereas the perceptual measures
identified the mediating process operating in one's mind, they
were results of actual behavior and other factors, such as those
pertaining to perceptual bias. Measurement of the behavior will
benefit from alternative measures, including observation and
daily report.
The study of delinquent and moral behavior among young
people in Hong Kong notably requires further effort that provides
more adequate explanation of the behavior in question. Primarily
using friends' behavior and the young person's lifestyle, intention,
and other background characteristics, the present study can only
explain 6.1% of variance in delinquent behavior and 10.8% of
variance in moral behavior. Although the explanation for
delinquent and moral intention was better (17.0% & 22.5%), it is
inadequate because delinquent intention was not significantly
predictive of delinquent behavior two years later. Hence,
delinquent behavior does not appear to be planned behavior that
fits rational choice or subjective utility theories (Ajzen 1988;
Becker 1993). Instead, some structural and value-relevant explanations deriving from social control, subculture, and other theories
concerned with social influence would be fruitful to identify
factors explaining delinquent behavior. Moreover, these theories
and factors should address early predictors of delinquency so as
to facilitate prevention of it. Factors that are contemporaneous
with delinquent involvement, however significant, would not
map its developmental path. Examination of such factors would
decidedly require further investigation with a panel design.
CONCLUSION

Like many other studies (Funk and Buchman 1996; Zgourides et

al. 1997), the present study of young people in Hong Kong finds
that involvement in the hedonist lifestyle was not a strong factor
leading users to practice more delinquent behavior. That is,
consumption of pornography, playing with, and reading of
materials featuring violence did not have a strong causal role for
subsequent delinquency. Instead, young people's association with
friends with more delinquent behavior and less moral behavior
was the root that generates the subculture and delinquent

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317

behavior. Hence, the popular literature that blames the

pornography and other media for corrupting the young consumers may overstate the detrimental effect, without observing
the common root in their association with delinquent friends.
Moreover, results based on cross-sectional studies and case
studies that did not clearly differentiate among various lifestyles
and other factors would lead to faulty conclusion (Lam 1995; Vagg
et al. 1995). On the other hand, the most remarkable effect appears
to be that of viewing pornographic materials on the youngster's
moral behavior. In this case, one who viewed pornographic
materials more frequently would show less moral behavior
subsequently.
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