Relative Reward Deprivation and Delinquency Causation

• NCJ Number: 87536
• Author(s): R F Catalano
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 315 pages
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: University of Washington - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

Rewards were found to be important factors in the production of attitudinal bonds to conformity for juveniles, but they do not apparently play the sole mediating role between antecedent opportunities, abilities, and involvements and attitudinal bonds as expected.

Abstract

The data used were collected in Seattle from November 1978 to August 1979 as part of a larger measurement study (the Seattle Youth Study). Three samples were drawn to represent a continuum of official delinquency. The survey instrument measured 23 variables associated with perceived and actual rewards received from interaction with parents and peers and from delinquent and nondelinquent experiences. In the proposed model, simple causal chains connect the concepts of four causal paths (two interaction paths and two involvement paths). Each path starts with the ecological or group valuation of the activity or interaction and is followed by the number of opportunities (individuals or activities present in a person's environment) to perceive these activities as rewarding, the perceived rewards one gets from the activity or interaction, and the resultant attitudinal attachment or commitment to these interactions or activities. The multiple indicators were used with the block recursive technique, which provides valuable information useful for exploratory analysis and model building. In addition to being found to be important factors in the production of attitudinal bonds to conformity, rewards were good indicators of one's investment or stake in conformity. The emergence of the idea of compensatory activities from the analysis of aggregate level indicators suggests that the proposed theory needs to be augmented to include unconventional but not necessarily delinquent involvements and interactions. Attachment to conventional peers played a solo role in preventing delinquent involvement, and informal control, conceptualized as parental supervision, played a much more important role than initially specified. Appended are the survey instrument, a list of indicators, tables, and partial correlations. About 90 bibliographic listings are provided.