HEAVY-METAL MUSIC PREFERENCE, DELINQUENT FRIENDS, SOCIAL-CONTROL, ANDDELINQUENCY

The authors examined the relationship between a preference for heavy m etal music among a large sample of suburban high school youth (N = 715 ) and delinquency, controlling for parental and school-related variabl es, as well as delinquent associations. They found support for the hyp othesis that heavy metal has an effect on delinquency when parental co ntrol is low. However they found no support for the hypothesized inter action between a preference for heavy metal and delinquent peers. Cont rary to expectations, those students with better school marks and a pr eference for heavy metal music had higher amounts of self-reported del inquency.