Building on the literature that stresses the social capital advantages of open and diffuse social networks, this article shows that African American boys who are a social bridge across two or more large but cohesive peer groups are less delinquent than are their counterparts who are members of a single peer group. Statistical interaction terms reveal that this decrease in delinquency can be attributed to the increased influence of parents among social bridges. The article concludes that the network form of the adolescent society, independent of its composition, conditions the parent-child relationship. (Contains 5 figures, 4 tables and 10 notes.)