NCJ Number
193622
Journal
Youth and Society Volume: 33 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2002 Pages: 339-365
Date Published
March 2002
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Data from a random sample of 1,031 students aged 13-18 in 5 public high schools in the east and south formed the basis of an analysis of the impacts of child abuse on these youths’ behavior and a comparison of the effects of control theory, strain theory, and social learning theory among violent younger and older adolescents.
Abstract
The study examined the effects of child abuse and adolescent abuse by adults on violence and whether the strongest predictors of violent behavior mediated the effects of childhood abuse or adolescent abuse. The research grouped the participants into the 493 students under age 16 and the 507 youths age 16 and over. Participants completed questionnaires with 150 items during their homeroom periods. Results revealed that other study factors mediated the effects of abuse by adults during childhood on violence only among the older adolescents. Attachments to female caregivers, self-esteem, and fathers’ education had inverse relationships, while suicide attempts had positive relationships to violence only among adolescents 15 years of age or younger. Results for both age groups revealed that attachment to the father, beliefs, and religion related inversely to violence. In contrast, feelings of frustration and alienation related positively to violence. The analysis concluded that the findings supported earlier conceptual recommendations that weak familial bonding is the crucial process leading to juvenile delinquency in early adolescence, while older adolescents who have weak bonds to family and society tend to drift into delinquent peer associations that lead to violence or other delinquency. Tables and 110 references