Consequences of Corporal Punishment Among African Americans: The Importance of Context and Outcome

Corporal punishment is a controversial practice used by the majority of American parents and is especially prevalent among African Americans. Research regarding its consequences has produced mixed results although it is clear that there is a need for considering the context within which corporal punishment is administered. To assess the impact of spanking, we employed an expanded parenting typology that includes corporal punishment. Longitudinal self-report data from a sample of 683 African American youth (54 % female) were utilized to evaluate the relative impact of the resulting eight parenting styles on three outcomes: conduct problems, depressive symptoms, and school engagement. Results from Negative Binomial Regression Models indicate that the effect of corporal punishment depends upon the constellation of parenting behaviors within which it is embedded and upon the type of outcome being considered. While it is never the case that there is any added benefit of adding corporal punishment, it is also the case that using corporal punishment is not always associated with poor outcomes. Overall, however, our findings show that parenting styles that include corporal punishment do not produce outcomes as positive as those associated with authoritative parenting.     

Verbal and Physical Abuse Toward Mothers: The Role of Family Configuration,Environment, and Coping Strategies

This paper focuses on parental maltreatment, a rarely documented phenomenon. We prospectively examine factors that can increase the risk of abusive behavior toward mothers. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a stressful family situation, parental divorce, and verbal and physical aggression toward mothers. We use a large Canadian sample of adolescents who have been followed since kindergarten. At age 15, we assessed verbal and physical abuse toward mothers, as reported by both mothers and their adolescents. Multinomial logit modeling revealed that parental divorce was associated with a greater risk of physical aggression directed toward mothers by adolescents. Family environment and parental coping strategies partially mediated that relationship. Mothers who divorced, and remained divorced, were at greater risk of being assaulted by their adolescent children. A positive family environment, reflecting a better parent–child relationship, partially diminished this risk. However, support-seeking behavior on the part of mothers increased the risk of abuse, concurrent with tyrannical strategies often mobilized by abusive children.     

Aspirations,Expectations and Delinquency: The Moderating Effect of Impulse Control

Although prior research finds a robust link between delinquent behavior and expectations, or an adolescent’s perceived likelihood of obtaining one’s future goals, fewer studies have evaluated aspirations, or the perceived importance of achieving one’s goals. In addition, few studies consider how individual traits such as impulsivity affect the degree to which expectations and aspirations motivate or deter delinquent behavior. We contribute to this body of research by evaluating the independent effects of expectations and aspirations, and the aspiration-expectation gap (i.e., strain) on delinquent behavior during the year following an adolescent’s first arrest using a large (N?=?1117), racially/ethnically diverse sample of male adolescents (46.55% Latino, 35.81% Black, 14.95% White, and 2.69% Other race). In addition, we considered how impulse control interacts with expectations, aspirations, and strain to motivate behavior. Our results indicated that both aspirations, expectations and strain uniquely influence criminal behavior. Importantly, aspirations interacted with impulse control, such that aspirations affected delinquency only among youth with higher impulse control. Our findings suggest that aspirations may only influence behavior if youth also have the psychosocial capabilities to consider their future aspirations when behaving in the present.     

Delinquency: The role of self-esteem and social values

Self-esteem and value orientation are recognized in several theories as important factors in the development of delinquency. In a comparison of these theories, value orientation and different aspects of self-esteem were assessed using an individually administered test battery with male delinquents, marginal delinquents, and nondelinquents. No value orientation or overall self-esteem differences were found. The results are interpreted as generally supportive of the Kaplan theory, which holds that delinquents use psychological defenses to enhance their self-esteem and to retain endorsement of socially accepted values.     

Co-Occurring Internalizing and Externalizing Behavioral Problems: The Mediating Effect of Negative Self-Concept

While a large body of research consistently finds that internalizing and externalizing problems are closely related and commonly co-occur, the literature is mixed regarding the unique and shared risk processes in the development of both domains of problems. The present study examined the nature and timing of relationships between internalizing and externalizing problems as well as the mediating effects of negative self-concept on both. Using a developmental cascade model as a guiding framework, we conducted a cross-lagged panel modeling on a sample of 2,844 Korean fourth graders (54% boys and 46% girls) followed over 4 years. Findings suggest that internalizing and externalizing problems were reciprocally reinforcing, each leading to increases in the other indirectly through the mediating influence of negative self-concept. Negative self-concept exacerbates the development of both internalizing and externalizing problems, which in turn further undermines one's self-concept. Although there were significant gender differences in the stability of internalizing and externalizing problems, the developmental pathways between negative self-concept and both internalizing and externalizing problems held for both boys and girls. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.     

The Effect of School Dropout on Verbal Ability in Adulthood: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Compared to high school graduates, adolescents who drop out of school are more likely to have a range of negative outcomes, including lower verbal capacities; however, the true nature of this association is not well-understood. Dropping out of school could have an important effect on reducing verbal skills, or the link between dropping out of school and diminished verbal skills could be a spurious association that is the result of unmeasured confounding variables. The current study tested these two competing perspectives by using propensity-score-matching (PSM) to unpack the association between school dropout and verbal skills among 7,317 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (51% female, 49% male; 62% Caucasian, 38% minority). The results of the PSM models indicated a small yet meaningful statistically significant effect of dropout on verbal skills in adulthood even after taking into account a range of confounders. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results.     

The Effects of Adolescent Activities on Delinquency: A Differential Involvement Approach

T. Hirschi’s (1969, Causes of Delinquency. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) control theory proposes that involvement, as an element of the social bond, should reduce delinquency. But, research studies have found that the effect of involvement is rather weak. This study reformulates Hirschi’s involvement hypothesis by posing involvement as a social setting variable and a differential factor. Certain activities provide a social setting favorable to the development of the social bond and the reduction in delinquent association. The reformulated hypothesis is examined based on a sample of Grade 7–12 students in a Western Canadian city. The results reveal that school- and family-related activities strengthen the social bond and reduce delinquent association and delinquency. In contrast, other conventional activities such as spending time with friends and dating have the opposite effects. In addition, the indirect effect of differential involvement on delinquency through the social bond and delinquent association is stronger than its direct effect. Thus, the undesirable effects of the less-positive activities on delinquency may be buffered or reduced by strengthening the social bond and reducing delinquent association.Siu Kwong Wong is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Brandon University. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Washington State University. His major research interests are in the study of delinquency and social disorganization.     

The Tangled Web: Delinquency, Deception, and Parental Attachment

Delinquent youth display weaker attachment to their parents than do other youth, but the reasons for this remain unclear. One explanation is that delinquent youth poison their relations with parents by lying to them about their friends, behavior, whereabouts, and more. Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health reveals that lying to parents is an exceptionally strong and robust correlate of delinquent behavior, and is associated with a variety of surreptitious behaviors – late bedtimes, hanging with friends, concealing whereabouts. Lying to parents appears to have a progressively negative impact on the parent-child bond, meaning that the well-established attachment/delinquency association is not solely a parent effect. Youth who lie to their parents do not appear to do so blithely, however. Compared to other youth, they hold themselves in lower regard and are more often depressed. Although parents are often angered by and distrustful of deceitful children, their children's fabrications may say less about their regard for their parents than about the strength of other loyalties.

Delinquency and family life among male adolescents: The role of ethnicity

This study addresses the role of ethnic and racial diversity in the relationship between family processes and delinquency. The study evaluates the overall role families play in the etiology of delinquency across different ethnic/racial groups, and investigates the relative role of specific issues such as family involvement, family attachment, and family control among Hispanic, African American, and white male adolescents. This analysis utilizes two waves of data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal project investigating the causes and correlates of delinquency among a high-risk urban sample of youth. Results of this study indicate that family variables as a group are more important in constraining delinquency for Hispanic adolescents. In addition, the relative influence of particular family processes on delinquent conduct appears to differ among diverse populations. We also find that living in a single-parent home has less impact on family processes than living in a situation of economic hardship.Prepared under Grant No. 86-JN-CX-0007 (S-3) from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Grant No. 5 R01 DA05512-02 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Grant No. SES-8912274 from the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank Terence P. Thornberry and Alan Lizotte for their helpful comments. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funding agencies.Received Ph.D. from University at Albany. Research interests include the family etiology of delinquency and the impact of the social context on parenting.Received Ph.D. from Florida State University. Research interests include adolescent substance use and juvenile delinquency.     

A Prospective Examination of the Path from Child Abuse and Neglect to Illicit Drug Use in Middle Adulthood: The Potential Mediating Role of Four Risk Factors

This study examines prostitution, homelessness, delinquency and crime, and school problems as potential mediators of the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect (CAN) and illicit drug use in middle adulthood. Children with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect (ages 0–11) during 1967–1971 were matched with non-maltreated children and followed into middle adulthood (approximate age 39). Mediators were assessed in young adulthood (approximate age 29) through in-person interviews between 1989 and 1995 and official arrest records through 1994 (N = 1,196). Drug use was assessed via self-reports of past year use of marijuana, psychedelics, cocaine, and/or heroin during 2000–2002 (N = 896). Latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test: (1) a four-factor model with separate pathways from CAN to illicit drug use through each of the mediating risk factors and (2) a second-order model with a single mediating risk factor comprised of prostitution, homelessness, delinquency and crime, and poor school performance. Analyses were performed separately for women and men, controlling for race/ethnicity and early drug use. In the four-factor model for both men and women, CAN was significantly related to each of the mediators, but no paths from the mediators to drug use were significant. For women, the second-order risk factor mediated the relationship between CAN and illicit drug use in middle adulthood. For men, neither child abuse and neglect nor the second-order risk factor predicted drug use in middle adulthood. These results suggest that for women, the path from CAN to middle adulthood drug use is part of a general “problem behavior syndrome” evident earlier in life.

Substance Abuse and Social Deviance:

The authors discuss adolescent substance abuse as a manifestation of social deviance. Theories of adolescent deviance are reviewed in light of their contributions to understanding troubled youth. A youth assessment framework is developed to provide a systematic means of linking theories to specific treatment strategies.     

Self-Esteem and Delinquency Revisited (Again): A Test of Kaplan's Self-Derogation Theory of Delinquency Using Latent Growth Curve Modeling

Investigations of Kaplan's self-derogation theory of delinquency are numerous, but results have been mixed. Progress in this domain of research may be hampered by the use of statistical methods that do not optimally test hypotheses derived from the theory. In this study, the relationship between self-esteem and delinquency is examined using latent growth curve modeling (LGM). Analyses of panel data from the Youth In Transition study supported Kaplan's theory by showing that delinquency was positively associated with growth in self-esteem among adolescent boys who initially reported having low self-regard. It was also found that self-esteem had a moderate, but significant, negative relationship with subsequent delinquency, net of prior delinquent behavior. It is concluded that future investigations of the relationship between self-esteem and delinquency would benefit from the use of LGM.     

Hispanic Adolescents and Substance Abuse:

The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the present state of knowledge about the probIem of substance abuse among Hispanic youth and to identify issues with which researchers, clinicians, administrators, and policy makers will have to deal in the coming decade. To do so, it will focus on five major areas: (1) the limitations of drug-related statistics; (2) demographic characteristics of Hispanics in the United States; (3) a review of the literature on Hispanic adolescent substance abuse; (4) factors inhibiting a comprehensive analysis of the problem, its treatment, and appropriate policies; and (5) issues for the 1980s.     

Verbal giftedness and sociopolitical intelligence: Terman revisited

This paper reports on a three-year study of sociopolitical intelligence-defined as the ability to formulate viable solutions to moral, social, and political problems—in adolescence. From an initial sample of 659 intellectually gifted 12- and 13-year-olds, 58 students with the highest SAT-V scores were selected for study. From a later sample of 506 equally gifted 13- and 14-year-olds, 120 students were selected using measures of verbal intelligence (DAT), social insight, and creative potential, as well as academic and nonacademic achievement. On the basis of a variety of personality and cognitive measures the students in both samples were found to be unusually mature and well adjusted but to vary considerably in sociopolitical intelligence. These results suggest in partial agreement with Terman's earlier findings concerning the gifted, that above a certain level of tested intelligence the critical determinants of effective, practical performance may be personality and biographical variables.This research was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the first author.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkely. Major interests are personality theory and moral developmentReceived her Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. Major interests are personality theory and medical psychology.Received his Ph.D. in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University. Major interests are education and developmental psychology.Graduate student in psychology, The Johns Hopkins University. B. A. University of Oregon, 1973. Major research interest is personality correlates of high-level achievement.Main research interest is the development of sociopolitical achievement.     

The Effects of Parental Warmth on Adolescent Delinquency in the United States and South Korea: a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Despite the prevalence of delinquency during adolescence and the influence of culture on parenting behaviors and adolescent outcomes, few studies have examined...     

Delinquency and learning disabilities: Evidence for compensatory behaviors and adaptation

There has been a great deal of debate as to whether or not there is a direct relationship between learning disabilities and delinquent behavior. While the relationship was well established for adjudicated youth, it was more uncertain for adolescents not actively involved with the juvenile justice system. There are indications, however, that the relationship is more complex, with learning disabled (LD) adolescents more likely to develop severe delinquent behaviors than are their nondisabled peers, but unlikely to exhibit a middle ground between delinquent and nondelinquent behavior. It is hypothesized that this difference is due to the ability of most LD children and adolescents to adapt through developing skills that allow them to compensate for their handicapping conditions. Implications for future research are discussed.Partial funding for research support provided by Texas Christian University Research Fund.This article was written by a member of the editorial board of theJournal of Youth and Adolescence as a response to the article by Daniel B. Pickar and Christopher D. Tori, entitled The Learning Disabled Adolescent: Eriksonian Psychological Development, Self-Concept, and Delinquent Behavior, which appeared in Volume 15, Number 5. —Daniel Offer, M. D., Editor-in-Chief.Received Ph. D. in personality and abnormal psychology at Northwestern University. Current research interests include social development and social skills training of both learning disabled and nondisabled adolescents.     

Rethinking Timing of First Sex and Delinquency

The relation between timing of first sex and later delinquency was examined using a genetically informed sample of 534 same-sex twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, who were assessed at three time points over a 7-year interval. Genetic and environmental differences between families were found to account for the association between earlier age at first sex and increases in delinquency. After controlling for these genetic and environmental confounds using a quasi-experimental design, earlier age at first sex predicted lower levels of delinquency in early adulthood. The current study is contrasted with previous research with non-genetically informative samples, including Armour and Haynie (2007, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 141–152). Results suggest a more nuanced perspective on the meaning and consequences of adolescent sexuality than is commonly put forth in the literature.