NCJ Number
133350
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: (June 1991) Pages: 525-536
Date Published
1991
Length
12 pages
Annotation
An analytical model is proposed hypothesizing that increased family size leads to decreased family influences which leads to greater peer group influences and ultimately increased delinquency.
Abstract
The analytical model received some contemporary support from the self-reports of delinquent acts from the study's sample of 400 male and 400 female tenth-grade students randomly selected from a school district in metropolitan southern California. Relationships with other youth were correlated positively with the index of delinquency. Youth-relationship and family-relationship variables were related in the expected direction: the greater the influence of the family variables the less influence that these respondents attributed to other youth. For this study, most of the relationship between increase in family size and greater delinquency was attributable to the greater delinquency rates of middle-rank-order siblings. The study findings provide some support for control, learning, and youth subculture theories of delinquency. 1 table and 16 references