NCJ Number
164985
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 162-188
Date Published
1996
Length
27 pages
Annotation
A model based on Hirschi's bond theory and focusing on the routine activities of youth is presented and used to predict adolescent marijuana use.
Abstract
The underlying logic of Hirschi's bond theory is that everyone has motives to deviate, but some individuals develop stakes in bonds to society that increase the costs associated with deviant behavior. The bond has four elements: attachment, commitment, belief, and involvement. The first three have received considerable attention and empirical support, but involvement has not been rigorously tested or conceptually elaborated. Hirschi regards involvement as the degree to which individuals engage in conventional activities. The model reconceptualizes involvement as daily routines and asserts that youths involved in routine activities that are highly visible and instrumental experience extensive social control and rarely engage in delinquent behaviors. In contrast, youths involved in invisible and noninstrumental activities eliminate social control and will often be delinquent. The present study used data from 3,356 high school seniors. Factor analysis was used to determine seven routine patterns that measure involvement: recreational, athletic, academic, performing arts, literary, nonsocial, and automotive. These factors were used in a multiple regression model to predict adolescent marijuana use. Results revealed that the routine patterns were significant predictors of marijuana use, even when the equation included elements of the bond. Tables, appended instrument, notes, and 64 references