NCJ Number
177506
Journal
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: 1999 Pages: 74-90
Date Published
1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study systematically examined the pattern and rate of change in both "general deviance" and the specific components of deviance (licit and illicit drug use, social conformity, and criminal activities) across a 16-year period that spanned the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Abstract
This was done because the higher order construct of general deviance is different from the pattern of change in the specific components across the same time period. Also, predictors of the patterns and rate of change may be different for general deviance than for the specific components of deviance. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine these issues. Latent growth curve modeling is a statistical analysis that allows questions about individual growth across multiple time points to be answered. The primary advantages of using this technique are that the rate of change across multiple time periods can be modeled. Additionally, change at the level of the individual can be analyzed. Data were obtained in an ongoing prospective study of adolescent and adult development. Participants have been monitored for 20 years, beginning when they were in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades in 11 Los Angeles area schools. The analyses for this study focused on data collected in the fifth year of the study. Complete data were obtained from 350 participants at all five time points. The study found that general deviance and components of deviance, with the exception of licit drug use, declined across this transition period. level and rate of change in general deviance and the social-conformity component were predicted primarily from family and attitudinal variables. The level and rate of change in illicit drug use and criminal activity were predicted primarily by variables associated with peer influence. 2 figures and 39 references