NCJ Number
207098
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 431-442
Date Published
October 2004
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Using data from a community sample of 1,218 boys and girls (mean age at the first wave of 15.5 years), this longitudinal study identified distinct trajectories of delinquent behavior during middle adolescence and examined their association with several personal and contextual covariates.
Abstract
Data were obtained from the Middle Adolescent Vulnerability Study, a four-wave panel study with 6-month intervals that focused on vulnerability factors and adolescent problem behaviors. At each wave, seven items selected from prior delinquency research were used to assess the frequency of students' engagement in delinquent behavior over the last 6 months, using self-reports. All covariates were measured at the first wave, i.e., when the adolescents were about 15.5 years old. The covariates measured were grade point average, perceived social support from family, stressful life events, depressive symptoms, alcohol use, and other substance use. Using a latent growth mixture modeling approach, the analysis identified six subgroups with distinctive developmental courses of delinquent activity: rare offenders, moderate late peakers, high late peakers, decreasers, moderate-level (ML) chronics, and high-level (HL) chronics. Students with poor academic achievement, unsupportive family environments, more negative life events, and adjustment problems were more likely to be HL-chronics than normative teens (rare offenders and moderate late peakers). Almost no differences were found between groups with more serious offending trajectories. Overall, there was more specificity in the correlates of distinctive offending trajectories than expected from general theories of crime. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 62 references