Differences in Nonshared Individual,School, and Family Variables Between Delinquent and Nondelinquent Hmong Adolescents

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether there were differences between Hmong immigrant siblings on multiple nonshared individual, school, and family variables. Participants were 58 sibling pairs (29 delinquent pairs and 29 nondelinquent pairs), who ranged in age from 13 to 21 years. There were 11 pairs of boys, 3 pairs of girls, and 15 pairs of opposite-sex siblings. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance indicated that delinquent and nondelinquent sibling groups were significantly different in participation in organized activities, antisocial attitudes, delinquent behaviors, school truancy, school performance, and parents' labeling. The findings have implications for future research on sibling delinquency in Hmong immigrant families and for program development and delivery.     

Multivariate approaches to the identification of delinquency proneness in adolescent males

A sample of 337 adolescent male students were surveyed for demographic, individual, school, and familial functioning and delinquency status to investigate two questions relevant to prediction of adolescent delinquency proneness. First, three methods of scoring a delinquency self-report measure (frequency, variety, and seriousness) were compared to assess their differential relevance to the prediction of delinquency proneness. Second, a multivariate model was examined to assess its explanatory ability for identification of delinquency proneness. Findings, replicated through a series of regression analyses, demonstrate that age of onset is the best predictor. Other than family functioning, psychosocial indicators add little to the predictive model. Third, a specific factor model was preferable to a "risk count" method. Finally, the advantage of self-reports of delinquent behavior over official records is discussed as is the comparability of self-report scoring procedures. How self-reported delinquency is scored is not as critical as previously thought.     

Differences in nonshared individual, school, and family variables between delinquent and nondelinquent Hmong adolescents

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether there were differences between Hmong immigrant siblings on multiple nonshared individual, school, and family variables. Participants were 58 sibling pairs (29 delinquent pairs and 29 nondelinquent pairs), who ranged in age from 13 to 21 years. There were 11 pairs of boys, 3 pairs of girls, and 15 pairs of opposite-sex siblings. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance indicated that delinquent and nondelinquent sibling groups were significantly different in participation in organized activities, antisocial attitudes, delinquent behaviors, school truancy, school performance, and parents' labeling. The findings have implications for future research on sibling delinquency in Hmong immigrant families and for program development and delivery.     

Early disruptive behavior,IQ, and later school achievement and delinquent behavior

A series of structural equation models is developed to examine the relationship between early externalizing behaviors (conduct problems, attention deficit) and IQ measured at age 8 years, academic achievement over the period 10 to 13 years, and delinquent behavior to the age of 15 in a birth cohort of New Zealand children. These models indicated that early externalizing behaviors and IQ were related to later academic achievement and delinquent behavior by two quite distinct but highly correlated developmental sequences. In one sequence early conduct problems were predictive of later delinquency but were not directly related to later academic achievement. In the other sequence, attention deficit and IQ were prognostic of later school achievement but were not directly related to delinquency. Further, the apparent correlations between academic achievement and delinquency were adequately explained by the common and correlated effects of early behavior and IQ on later achievement and delinquency. These conclusions remained unchanged when the sample was stratified by gender, and when further explanatory factors were introduced into the model.This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation and the National Child Health Research Foundation.     

The implications of age of onset for delinquency risk II: Longitudinal data

The role of age of onset in the level of involvement in delinquent behavior as marked by seriousness and chronicity of involvement continues to draw extensive attention from researchers. This issue bears on some of the key causal contentions about the dynamism of involvement and the validity of a developmental model of antisocial behavior risk. Five waves of the National Youth Survey were utilized here to determine if, among a nationally representative sample, there was evidence of onset age influence on later involvement. Results suggest that early onset (before age 12) relates to higher rates of more serious acts over a longer period of time for boys and girls. Overall, the results suggest support for early onset spurring on later involvement, but the contribution is small once psychosocial predictors are considered. Onset age seems most important in understanding involvement in serious crime over several years. Involvement is explained best by peer variables for males and school and family variables for females. Onset age is explained by a wider range of variables than involvement and there is greater similarity of the psychosocial variables that explain onset for both genders. The interaction of involvement and predictors was noted, suggesting a dynamic model of risk. Implications for prediction and prevention are discussed.This work was conducted with support of an NIJ summer fellowship to the first author and NIMH grants MH48248 and MH48034 awarded the first author.     

Delinquency,substance abuse,and risk taking in middle-class adolescents

Risk-taking attitudes are strong predictors of delinquency and substance abuse among male and female middle-class adolescents. Risk-taking measures make strong and independent contributions to predicting self-reported delinquency and drug and alcohol use, even taking into account bonding to family and school and attitudes toward one's religious faith and employment. A measure of involvement with a delinquent peer group also predicts delinquency and drug and alcohol use. Moreover, those adolescents who are more likely to be involved in delinquent activity, or to be heavier users of substances, are less likely to turn to parents or formal helpers (e.g., counselors, teachers, etc.), and more likely to turn to peers for help. Delinquency and substance abuse prevention programs should take into account adolescent risk taking and should affect peer group norms if they are to be effective.     

Relation of Family Problems to Patterns of Delinquent Involvement Among Urban Youth

The relation of patterns of family problems and patterns of delinquent behavior over time was evaluated among a sample of inner-city minority adolescent males. Empirically derived groups were identified and included: nonoffenders, chronic minor offenders, escalators, and serious chronic offenders. Patterns of family problems were also identified and differentially related to delinquency groups. Members of the group involved in serious chronic offending were more likely to have families characterized by multiple problems including disruption, conflict, and lack of parental involvement, sometimes so extreme as to meet the legal requirement of neglect. They were also more likely to have families characterized by deviant behavior and attitudes. The finding of specific relations between types of family problems and patterns of delinquent behavior has important implications for intervention and prevention. Rather than assuming a general relation between family functioning and delinquent involvement, specific aspects of family functioning may need to be targeted to affect different patterns of delinquent involvement.     

Effects of perceived parental school support and family communication on delinquent behaviors in latinos and white non-latinos

The authors examined the roles of perceived parental school support and family communication in the context of delinquent behaviors in Mexican American and White non-Latino adolescents. Family communication was defined as the degree to which adolescents endorsed that they communicated with their parents about a variety of topics. The Parental School Support scale was administered to assess adolescents' perceptions of parental support for academic pursuits. Data analysis included the relationship between these variables and their predictive relationship to delinquency, and the relationship to gender and ethnicity. Results demonstrated that adolescents' perceptions of family communication and parental school support were related to the likelihood of committing delinquent acts. There were no significant differences in gender or ethnicity in perceived levels of family communication and parental school support.     

Victimization and delinquency among Canadian youth.

This study examined the extent of victimization and delinquency in the past year among 962 junior and senior high school students in a large Canadian city. The incidence of having a weapon at school was also investigated. Further, relationships between victimization, delinquency, and weapon possession were explored. The prevalence of self-reported victimization was found to be high, both while the youths were at school and while not at school. Except for victimization of a sexual nature, males reported higher rates of victimization, in and out of school, than did females. In general, younger students reported higher rates of victimization at school than did older students. In addition, over half of the students reported engaging in some form of delinquent behavior within the past year. Males, as compared with females, were more likely to report engaging in a variety of delinquent behaviors. Interestingly, students in grade 9 were more likely to report delinquent behaviors than were students in other grades. Students who reported moderate/high levels of delinquency were more likely to report moderate/high levels of victimization, and students who reported no delinquency were more likely to report no victimization.     

Risk and protective factors for delinquency among male adolescent immigrants at different stages of the acculturation process

This cross-sectional study investigated a model of risk and protective factors of the family, school, and peer environment that predict adolescent delinquent behaviour. Three social groups were compared: newcomer ethnic German adolescent immigrants, experienced ethnic German adolescent immigrants, and native adolescents. Based on theoretical assumptions about processes of acculturation, it was hypothesized that the strength of associations between the variables in the theoretical model would vary between newcomer immigrants and native adolescents and also between newcomer and experienced immigrants, but would be similar for experienced immigrants and native adolescents; these hypotheses were supported. Findings suggest that certain risk factors, such as parental violence and involvement with delinquent peers, are more strongly related to delinquency among newcomer immigrants than among experienced immigrants and native adolescents, whereas certain protective factors, such as parental knowledge and school bonding, seem to be relevant for experienced immigrants and native adolescents only. Results seem to indicate that migration can be seen as phase transition with a stronger impact of risk factors on the development of delinquency among newcomer immigrant adolescents. This has implications for studying acculturation processes in immigrant groups as well as for group-specific intervention programmes.     

Early development of delinquency within divorced families: evaluating a randomized preventive intervention trial

This paper reports on an experimental test of coercion theory early onset model of delinquency. Results are from the Oregon Divorce Study-II, a randomized preventive intervention trial with a sample of 238 recently separated mothers and their sons in early elementary school. The objective was to experimentally manipulate parenting variables hypothesized to influence development of delinquent behaviors. Multiple-method assessment spanned 36 months. Because the intervention focused on parent training, we expected that any intervention effects on changes in child outcomes would be mediated by hypothesized intervening mechanisms. Linear growth models showed significantly greater reduction in boys' delinquency and deviant peer affiliation in the experimental group relative to the controls. Subsequent models using no method overlap in constructs demonstrated that the intervention effect on delinquency operated through growth in parenting and reduction in deviant peer affiliation.     

Family as a factor in delinquency

50 adjudicated delinquents were given academic and psychological tests and a self-report of delinquency according to the learning disability/delinquency study of the National Criminal Justice Service of 1980. 31 learning disabled delinquents were identified. The test of proportions compared learning disabilities in delinquent (n = 31) and nondelinquent (ns = 24 and 43) samples. The Mann-Whitney U test compared the reported number of categories of delinquent behavior in the three groups. A typical delinquent of this rural area tends to be a white male with average or above intelligence and a learning disability. His family is large; his parents are divorced. He comes from a poorer economic and cultural background. A dysfunctional family can be a center wherein delinquency grows; on the other hand, a strong family can nurture and protect when peers and school fail.     

Context-Dependent Pathways of the Transmission of Risk from Communities to Individuals

Research has consistently documented the role of environmental risk factors in the onset of delinquent behavior among youth. Less is known about the processes through which these contextual risks are translated to individual youth behavior. The aim of the current study is to examine the role of family risk factors in the transmission of community risk. Data was obtained from a nationally representative sample of over 30,000 middle school youth and community key informants (CKI). A multilevel, moderated mediation model was estimated with family risk as the moderator of the effect of CKI ratings of community risk on youth perceptions of risk. Results showed that when youth came from low risk families (measured by parental use of positive family management strategies), youth perceptions of risk mediated the effects of community risk on youth delinquency; however, there was no evidence of a significant mediated effect under conditions of high risk (measured by poor family management). This appears to be because youth from high-risk families perceived their neighborhoods as high-risk, regardless of actual levels of risk (as reported by CKI). This study finds that the relationship between communities and adolescent behavior is complex and interacts with the family environment.     

Self-reported delinquency among Alberta's youth: findings from a survey of 2,001 junior and senior high school students

This article draws on data from a 1999 survey on youth victimization, crime and delinquency in Alberta conducted by the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family in collaboration with researchers from the University of Alberta. The survey included 2,001 youth attending Grades 7 to 12 in public and Catholic schools in selected urban and rural areas in the province. Analyses focus on self-reported past-year delinquency. Statistically significant results were found for relationships between extent of delinquency and gender, grade level, psychosocial problems (as measured by conduct, hyperactivity, and emotional problems), and extent of past-year victimization. For low/moderate delinquency, females were comparable to males, and even reported slightly higher rates for low/moderate violence-related delinquency. Younger students were more likely to indicate engaging in violence-related delinquency, while older students were more likely to report property-related delinquent acts. Overall, Grade 9 students had the highest rates of delinquency. For personal characteristics, a high score on conduct problems was most strongly correlated with moderate/high delinquency. The relationship between high levels of delinquency and victimization was stronger for violence-related delinquency than for property-related delinquency.     

The Effects of Family Type, Family Relationships and Parental Role Models on Delinquency and Alcohol Use Among Flemish Adolescents

This study focused on the effects of family type, family relationships and socialization on alcohol consumption and delinquent behaviour among Flemish adolescents. Data came from the second round of the Leuven Adolescents and Families Study and were collected in 2010 by paper-and-pencil questionnaires in 10 different secondary schools (N = 1,688). The results show that children living in non-intact families are more likely to be delinquent and to drink alcohol at an age it is not legally allowed (below 16 years old). High delinquent behaviour is found among boys in single parent families and among girls in stepfamilies. For alcohol use the reverse is true. A good relationship with the same-sex parent is negatively associated with delinquency. High interparental conflict increases delinquency for boys and alcohol use for girls. Parental role models are highly important, since drinking behaviour of parents, and especially the same-sex parent, are positively associated with externalising problems of children.     

Childhood aggression and social adjustment as antecedents of delinquency

A sample of 2,453 grade school children were followed into young adulthood through record sources. Teacher interviews provided information about low-peer-status children that was assessed in relation to subsequent delinquency for both sexes and young adult criminality for males. A multivariate design evaluated the joint effects of social class, a measure of family disturbance, and childhood problem behavior factors as antecedents of delinquency. Childhood aggression emerged as the most prominent antecedent factor for males but not for females. Social class and family disturbance were associated with aggression but did not have significant direct effects on delinquency. Aggression was related to severity of delinquency. Dispositional status, reflecting severity, was the best indicator of which delinquent males would have adult criminal records. A causal model is presented.The study was supported by a grant from the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Program, N.M.J., U.S.A. Portions of the study were presented at the Life History Research conference in Monterey, California, 1981. The authors wish to thank June White, Cindy Hanson, and Ned Worell for their help in conducting this research. Data for this research was originally gathered by Merrill Roff. Follow-up data were contributed by Ronald Peek, Donald Bamber, Charles Watson, Shiela Makie, William S. Ward, Edward S. Posey, Chris Hemlabs, and Harriet Barnes.     

Adolescent loneliness

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of loneliness in delinquent adolescents with regard to types of delinquency offenses committed, demographic characteristics, and personality characteristics in the areas of interpersonal needs for inclusion, control, and affection. The types of delinquency offenses were categorized as burglary, runaway, drugs, assault, and incorrigible. The demographic variables examined were age, sex, race, family rank or birth order, family structure in terms of parental presence, family income level, religion, and geographic locale. A sample of 98 adolescents was obtained from juvenile detention facilities in three metropolitan areas in the United States. Subjects ranged in age from 12 to 18. Subjects were asked to complete the Loneliness Questionnaire as a self-reported measure of loneliness. Subjects also provided information about themselves relative to demographic characteristics and completed the FIRO-B Questionnaire, which measured interpersonal needs for inclusion, control, and affection. The results revealed no significant differences with regard to any of the demographic variables when the effect of each was considered alone. However, there was a significant effect on loneliness by income when considered jointly with other demographic variables. Adolescents from the middle income group expressed more loneliness than those from the upper and lower income groups. No significant differences were observed with regard to personality characteristics related to interpersonal needs for inclusion and affection, but delinquent adolescents with medium to high needs for control indicated significantly more feelings of loneliness than delinquent adolescents with low needs for control.     

A Test of Three Alternative Hypotheses Regarding the Effects of Early Delinquency on Adolescent Psychosocial Functioning and Substance Involvement

This study compared alternative hypotheses (from general deviance, life course, and developmental psychopathology perspectives) regarding the effects of early adolescent delinquency on psychosocial functioning in family, school, and peer contexts, and on alcohol use. Analyses also examined parent-child negative affective quality, prosocial school orientation, and peer substance use as possible direct predictors of problem substance use. Participants in this longitudinal study, extending from age 11 to age 18, were 429 rural teens (222 girls) and their families. Path model comparisons supported the tenability of a partial mediation model that included mediating pathways and a direct effect of delinquency on alcohol use, as hypothesized by developmental psychopathology. A supplemental analysis controlling for the stability of the family, school, and peer variables revealed that delinquency had less pervasive direct effects on, and a nonsignificant indirect effect through, changes in the mediators over time. Results also showed that peer substance use was a direct positive predictor of problem use.     

Psychometric Study of the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale: Prediction of Contact with the Law and Poor School Attendance

The predictive validity of the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) is investigated using the data set generated by the national evaluation of the demonstration service grants funded by the Center for Mental Health Services. Logistic regressions were performed separately for contact with the law and poor school attendance, which were both assessed at 6 months postintake. Other variables included in the model besides the CAFAS total score at intake were age, gender, and family risk factors. The results show that the CAFAS total score at intake was a positive predictor of the likelihood of contact with the law and poor school attendance, even after controlling for age, gender, and risk factors. Furthermore, the CAFAS total score was predictive even after excluding scores on CAFAS subscales, which may have been influenced by absenteeism or delinquency. These findings are consistent with recent research indicating that the CAFAS predicts recidivism in juvenile delinquents.This research was conducted while the author was a Research Associate at the Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI     

Using integrated theory to explain the movement into juvenile delinquency

Research grounded in labeling, differential association, social learning, and social control theory provides useful information about various phases of the delinquency process. However, none of these theories accounts for the entire delinquency process. Recent work has demonstrated, for example, that social control theory may be more suitable for explaining initial delinquency, whereas labeling theory is more useful in explaining continued delinquency. This paper incorporates theoretical elements of labeling, differential association, social learning, and social control theories into a model that explains both initial and continued delinquency. Analysis of data from three waves of the National Youth Survey provides support for the model and shows that weakened social controls increase opportunities for associating with delinquent peers, learning delinquent behaviors, and committing initial delinquent acts. Initial delinquency increases the likelihood of being observed and negatively labeled by parents. These labels in turn increase the likelihood of future delinquency. These results lend support to arguments for integrated theory in the study of juvenile delinquency.