NCJ Number
92128
Journal
Social Psychology Quarterly Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Dated: (1983) Pages: 11-22
Date Published
1983
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Self-reported data from a national panel survey are examined to determine whether self-esteem is a mediating event between evaluative social experiences (school, family and social support) and delinquency.
Abstract
Path analytic procedures are employed to test the most explicit causal paradigm of the self-concept-delinquency relation: the delinquency-as-self-enhancement model. Despite: (1) variations in the types of delinquency analyzed, (2) restrictions placed on the sample in testing for possible contingent relations, and (3) variations in the time lags used to compute the regression coefficients, no substantial effect of self-esteem on subsequent delinquency was found when the effects of prior causal variables were partialled out. Additionally, no evidence of a self-enhancement effect (i.e., a positive effect of delinquency on subsequent self-concept) was discovered. These results are discussed in relation to prior research and social policy assumptions which focus on self-images as a key variable for reducing delinquency. (Author abstract)