Age and Differential Predictability of Delinquent Behavior

• NCJ Number: 79280
• Journal: Social Forces Volume: 60 Issue: 1 Dated: (September 1981) Pages: 97-113
• Author(s): D W Mann
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 17 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH20575
• Sponsoring Agency: University of Michigan; US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare; University of Michigan
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. A draft of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Annotation

This paper views delinquent behavior as a defense against low self-esteem brought about by poor performance in school.

Abstract

Defensiveness is operationalized as a discrepancy between scores on measures of conscious self-esteem (high) and unconscious esteem (low). A representative national sample of 720 boys was divided into two age groups: 11-14 years, 15-18 years. Among the older group, successive interaction hypotheses predicting increasing levels of delinquent behavior were supported. The result was a predicted high delinquency defensive group whose mean delinquency score was at the 86th percentile of the population distribution. The hypotheses were not suppported in the younger age group. Differences in accumulated social experience in school are suggested as accounting for the difference between age groups. (Social Forces and author abstract)