Search Results

Author: Walters, Glenn D.
Resulting in 18 citations.
1. Walters, Glenn D.
Are the Effects of Parental Control/Support and Peer Delinquency on Future Offending Cumulative or Interactive? A Multiple Group Analysis of 10 Longitudinal Studies
Journal of Criminal Justice 60 (January-February 2019): 13-24.
Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235218303817
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth); Parent Supervision/Monitoring; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations

Purpose: This study assessed whether the combined effect of parental control/support and peer delinquency on future participant offending was cumulative, interactive, or redundant.

Methods: A review of database studies available through the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) website identified 10 longitudinal studies with prospective self-report data on parental control/support, peer delinquency or deviance, and future offending in participants 18 years of age and younger.

Results: A multiple group analysis revealed that while there was mild to moderate evidence of measurement invariance or consistency of results across gender and race, there was no evidence of consistency of substantive relationships across the 10 studies. A review of findings from each individual study revealed that while the parent and peer main effects were each significant in 9 out of the 10 studies, the parent x peer interaction was significant in only 1 out of 10 studies.

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Are the Effects of Parental Control/Support and Peer Delinquency on Future Offending Cumulative or Interactive? A Multiple Group Analysis of 10 Longitudinal Studies." Journal of Criminal Justice 60 (January-February 2019): 13-24.
2. Walters, Glenn D.
Changes in Arrest Rate as a Function of Probation and Participant Criminal History Risk: Does Probation Work Best With Lower Risk Probationers?
Criminal Justice Policy Review 30,5 (2019): 748-764.
Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0887403417721605
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Arrests; Behavior, Antisocial; Criminal Justice System; Propensity Scores

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether criminal history risk moderates the effect of probation on future reoffending. A sample of 327 participants from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) who had been on probation were compared with 327 propensity score matched members of the NLSY97 who had been arrested but not placed on probation. Probation and arrest data analyzed between 1999 and 2008 failed to support the presence of an overall effect for probation. When the sample was divided into higher criminal history risk (one or more prior arrests) and lower criminal history risk (no prior arrests), however, probation was found to reduce recidivism in the lower criminal history risk group but not in the higher criminal history risk group. Accordingly, probation appeared to have a small but significant ameliorative effect on future offending in lower criminal history risk offenders.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Changes in Arrest Rate as a Function of Probation and Participant Criminal History Risk: Does Probation Work Best With Lower Risk Probationers?" Criminal Justice Policy Review 30,5 (2019): 748-764.
3. Walters, Glenn D.
Childhood Temperament: Dimensions or Types?
Personality and Individual Differences 50,8 (June 2011): 1168-1173.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886911000894
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Childhood; Scale Construction; Temperament; Tests and Testing

In the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY-C), mothers rated their 12-23month old toddlers on 11 temperament items. Three sets of items (three items per set) - one clustered around fearfulness, one clustered around positive affect, and one clustered around difficultness - were subjected to taxometric analysis using mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum covariance (MAXCOV), and latent-mode factor analysis (L-Mode). The results for all three sets of items showed consistent support for dimensional latent structure. When all nine items were simultaneously analyzed with finite mixture modeling the results were inconsistent with a categorical solution. The results of this study indicate that individual differences in childhood temperament - as measured by maternal ratings of children 12-23months of age - are quantitative (difference in degree) rather than qualitative (difference of kind). The implications of these results for understanding and assessing childhood temperament are discussed. [Copyright © Elsevier]
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Childhood Temperament: Dimensions or Types?" Personality and Individual Differences 50,8 (June 2011): 1168-1173.
4. Walters, Glenn D.
Cognitive Mediation of Crime Continuity: A Causal Mediation Analysis of the Past Crime-Future Crime Relationship
Crime and Delinquency 61,9 (November 2015): 1234-1256.
Also: http://cad.sagepub.com/content/61/9/1234
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Arrests; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Expectations/Intentions; Incarceration/Jail; Psychological Effects

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Utilizing data from two large samples, cognitive variables were evaluated as potential mediators of the past crime–future crime relationship. In the first study, the reconstructed General Criminal Thinking (GCTrc) score of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was found to mediate the relationship between past adult convictions/juvenile adjudications and future recidivism in 1,101 male federal prisoners. In the second study, a cognitive appraisal of one's future chances of arrest was found to mediate the relationship between self-reported delinquency between the ages of 13 and 15 and self-reported delinquency between the ages of 17 and 19 in 1,414 male and female members of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) cohort. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the mediating effects in both studies were reasonably robust to violations of the sequential ignorability assumption. These findings suggest that cognitive factors may play a role in encouraging continuity from the early to the later stages of criminal involvement.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Cognitive Mediation of Crime Continuity: A Causal Mediation Analysis of the Past Crime-Future Crime Relationship ." Crime and Delinquency 61,9 (November 2015): 1234-1256.
5. Walters, Glenn D.
Continuous versus Categorical Models of Delinquency Risk
American Journal of Criminal Justice 39,3 (September 2014): 395-410.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12103-013-9235-1
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Delinquency/Gang Activity; Parent Supervision/Monitoring; School Suspension/Expulsion; Substance Use

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Two groups of participants, one a nationally representative sample with roughly equal numbers of male and female participants (N = 8,984) and the other a sample of mostly male adjudicated delinquents (N = 1,354), were used to test whether risk factors for delinquency are organized continuously or categorically. A continuous (variable-centered) model was created using factor scores from a one-factor confirmatory factor analysis and a categorical (person-centered) model was constructed using posterior probabilities from a two-class finite mixture modeling analysis. In both samples the continuous model correlated significantly better with subsequent offending than did the categorical model, a finding that was replicated in males from both samples and in females from the nationally representative sample. The current findings suggest that risk factors are better construed as points along a continuum rather than as properties of distinct groups or types. These results further suggest that the etiology of offending, in the form of risk factors, is general/additive rather than specific/selective. The implications of these results for theory development, clinical practice, and future research are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Continuous versus Categorical Models of Delinquency Risk." American Journal of Criminal Justice 39,3 (September 2014): 395-410.
6. Walters, Glenn D.
Delinquency, Parental Involvement, Early Adult Criminality, and Sex: Evidence of Moderated Mediation
Journal of Adolescence 36,4 (August 2013): 777-785.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197113000481
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Gender Differences; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Parental Influences

One purpose of this study was to determine whether parental involvement, measured in late adolescence, mediates the relationship between delinquency in mid-adolescence and crime in early adulthood. This study's second purpose was to ascertain whether this relationship is moderated by sex, such that late adolescent parental involvement mediates the delinquency-crime relationship in females but not in males. A secondary analysis of data provided by 579 (272 males, 307 females) members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child (NLSYC) was conducted in an effort to evaluate the possibility of moderated mediation in the relationship between delinquency at age 16, parental involvement at age 18, and criminality at age 24. Moderated mediation analysis, path analysis, and causal mediation analysis revealed the presence of a conditional indirect relationship between delinquency, parental involvement, and adult crime moderated by sex. These results are consistent with views on cumulative disadvantage and gendered pathways to crime.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Delinquency, Parental Involvement, Early Adult Criminality, and Sex: Evidence of Moderated Mediation." Journal of Adolescence 36,4 (August 2013): 777-785.
7. Walters, Glenn D.
Developmental Trajectories of Delinquent Behavior: One Pattern or Several?
Criminal Justice and Behavior 39,9 (September 2012): 1192-1203.
Also: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093854812443645
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Sage Publications
Keyword(s): Delinquency/Gang Activity; Modeling, Latent Class Analysis/Latent Transition Analysis

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

A latent class growth analysis (LCGA) of self-reported involvement in delinquency was performed on a sample of 1,414 boys and girls from the 1997 version of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The LCGA results revealed the presence of three trajectories (high, medium, and low elevation). The three-trajectory and three-class posterior probabilities models were subsequently compared to a simple dimensional model composed of the sum of all delinquent acts reported in a 7-year period. Analyses revealed that the simple dimensional model correlated significantly better with measures of delinquency initiation and severity than the three-trajectory and posterior probabilities models. The fact that a categorical model created from the results of an LCGA analysis and posterior probabilities of class membership experienced significantly weaker effect sizes than a simple dimensional model suggests the absence of a nonarbitrary division between the trajectory groups identified in this study.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Developmental Trajectories of Delinquent Behavior: One Pattern or Several?" Criminal Justice and Behavior 39,9 (September 2012): 1192-1203.
8. Walters, Glenn D.
Early Childhood Temperament, Maternal Monitoring, Reactive Criminal Thinking, and the Origin(s) of Low Self-Control
Journal of Criminal Justice 43,5 (September-October 2015): 369-376.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235215000641
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Modeling, Trajectory analysis; Parent Supervision/Monitoring; Risk-Taking; Self-Control/Self-Regulation; Temperament

The purpose of this study was to determine whether difficult temperament is capable of predicting low self-control after controlling for parenting factors (maternal monitoring) and whether low self-control precedes reactive criminal thinking in the development of a delinquent lifestyle.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Early Childhood Temperament, Maternal Monitoring, Reactive Criminal Thinking, and the Origin(s) of Low Self-Control." Journal of Criminal Justice 43,5 (September-October 2015): 369-376.
9. Walters, Glenn D.
Inhibiting the Inhibitor: Are Callous-Unemotional Traits Capable of Suppressing the Inhibitory Effect of Child Self-Disclosure on Delinquency?
Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology 4,2 (Jun 2018): 232-250.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40865-018-0082-0
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Delinquency/Gang Activity; Personality/Big Five Factor Model or Traits; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Purpose: Using a mediation methodology and three waves of data, the current study sought to determine whether callous-unemotional (CU) traits were capable of suppressing the inhibitory effect of child self-disclosure on delinquency in line with predictions from criminal lifestyle theory. The results were then compared to the suppressant effect of low self-control (LSC) on the child self-disclosure–delinquency relationship.

Methods: Participants for this study were 2586 (1290 boys, 1296 girls) members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child (NLSY-C). CU traits and LSC were measured when participants were 9 to 10 years of age, child self-disclosure was measured when participants were 11 to 12 years of age, and delinquency was measured when participants were 13 to 14 years of age.

Results: Consistent with predictions, the pathway running from CU traits to child self-disclosure to delinquency was significant whereas the pathway running from LSC to child self-disclosure to delinquency was non-significant. Contrary to predictions, the two pathways were not significantly different from one another.

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Inhibiting the Inhibitor: Are Callous-Unemotional Traits Capable of Suppressing the Inhibitory Effect of Child Self-Disclosure on Delinquency?" Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology 4,2 (Jun 2018): 232-250.
10. Walters, Glenn D.
Latent Structure of Life-Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior: Is Moffitt's Developmental Taxonomy a True Taxonomy?
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 79,1 (February 2011): 96-105
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Life Course; Scale Construction

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether life-course-persistent (LCP) and adolescence-limited (AL) antisocial behavior form distinct categories or lie along a common dimension. Method: Taxometric analyses were performed on 2,175 men and women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Data (Center for Human Resource Research, 2009) with at least 1 self-reported delinquent act. The 3 externalizing factor scales from the parent-rated Behavior Problems Index (Peterson & Zill, 1986)-Antisocial, Headstrong, and Hyperactive-served as indicators in an investigation into the latent structure of LCP and AL antisocial behavior. Results: All 3 taxometric procedures included in this study-mean above minus below a cut, maximum covariance, and latent mode factor analysis-produced results consistent with the conclusion that the latent structure of LCP and AL antisocial behavior is dimensional in nature. Conclusion: From a conceptual standpoint, the results of this study suggest that LCP and AL antisocial behavior differ in degree (quantitative difference) rather than in kind (qualitative difference). These results have potentially important implications for theory development as well as for clinical assessment, diagnosis, and intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Latent Structure of Life-Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior: Is Moffitt's Developmental Taxonomy a True Taxonomy?" Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 79,1 (February 2011): 96-105.
11. Walters, Glenn D.
Low Self-Control, Peer Rejection, Reactive Criminal Thinking, and Delinquent Peer Associations: Connecting the Pieces of the Crime Puzzle
Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology 2,2 (June 2016): 209-231.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40865-016-0028-3
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Anxiety; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Depression (see also CESD); Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Purpose: The present series of studies were designed to test the control model of criminal lifestyle development which integrates aspects of low self-control, general strain, differential association, and criminal thinking.

Methods: Participants for the first study were 411 boys from the Cambridge Study of Delinquency Development, and participants for the second study were 3817 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child (NLSY-C) sample.

Results: In the first study (Cambridge), peer-rated popularity (peer rejection) and teacher-rated low self-control were cross-lagged, with results showing that while low self-control predicted peer rejection, peer rejection did not predict low self-control. In the second study (NLSY-C), findings revealed that (1) peer rejection predicted deviant peer associations but not vice versa, (2) delinquency and reactive criminal thinking mediated the peer rejection–peer delinquency relationship, and (3) negative affect (depression, anxiety, loneliness) alone did not mediate the peer rejection–peer delinquency relationship nor did it alter the indirect effects of delinquency and reactive criminal thinking on this relationship.

Conclusions: The results of these two studies suggest that theoretical integration is possible and that reactive criminal thinking plays an important role in mediating relationships involving such traditional criminological variables as low self-control, strain created by peer rejection, and peer delinquency.

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Low Self-Control, Peer Rejection, Reactive Criminal Thinking, and Delinquent Peer Associations: Connecting the Pieces of the Crime Puzzle." Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology 2,2 (June 2016): 209-231.
12. Walters, Glenn D.
Measuring Low Self-Control and Reactive Criminal Thinking in the NLSY-Child Sample: One Construct or Two?
American Journal of Criminal Justice 42,2 (June 2017): 314-328.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12103-016-9365-3
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Attitudes; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Scale Construction; Self-Control/Self-Regulation

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a behavioral rating measure of low self-control and an attitudinal measure of low self-control can be viewed as measuring the same construct. It was hypothesized that the externalizing scale of the Behavior Problems Index (BPI-Ext), which served as a behavioral rating measure of low self-control in the current study, would display greater similarity to a 6-item self-report of antisocial, but not necessarily delinquent, behavior (SR-AB) measure than it would a 6-item attitudinal self-report measure of low self-control, labeled the reactive criminal thinking (SR-RCT) scale. This study was conducted on a sample of 6280 children (3144 boys, 3136 girls) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child (NLSY-C). A pair of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the BPI-Ext and SR-RCT scales appeared to form two distinct constructs. In addition, the BPI-Ext correlated significantly better with the SR-AB than with the SR-RCT and the BPI-Ext and SR-AB achieved moderate negative correlations with measures of attention, concentration, achievement, and general aptitude, whereas the SR-RCT achieved small positive correlations. These results indicate that behavioral and attitudinal measures of low self-control are measuring different constructs, the former impulsive behavior and the latter reactive criminal thinking.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Measuring Low Self-Control and Reactive Criminal Thinking in the NLSY-Child Sample: One Construct or Two?" American Journal of Criminal Justice 42,2 (June 2017): 314-328.
13. Walters, Glenn D.
Mothers and Fathers, Sons and Daughters: Parental Knowledge and Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship as Predictors of Delinquency in Same- and Cross-Sex Parent‒Child Dyads
Journal of Child and Family Studies 28,7 (July 2019): 1850-1861.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-019-01409-5
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Delinquency/Gang Activity; Fathers and Children; Fathers and Sons; Mothers and Daughters; Parent-Child Relationship/Closeness; Sons

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Objectives: This study tested two putative mechanisms for the perceived parental knowledge-delinquency relationship using a longitudinal cross-lagged research design.

Methods: The first mechanism tested in this study proposed that a positive parent-child relationship enhanced parental knowledge, which, in turn, inhibited delinquency. The second mechanism started with parental knowledge, which then led to improved parent-child affiliation, which, in turn, reduced delinquency. These two pathways were evaluated in 5102 mothers (2631 sons, 2471 daughters) and 3999 fathers (2117 sons, 1882 daughters) of adolescent members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97).

Results: Causal mediation analysis revealed that both pathways (positive relationship → parental knowledge; parental knowledge → positive relationship) were significant in all four dyads (fathers-sons, fathers-daughters, mothers-sons, and mothers-daughters).

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Mothers and Fathers, Sons and Daughters: Parental Knowledge and Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship as Predictors of Delinquency in Same- and Cross-Sex Parent‒Child Dyads." Journal of Child and Family Studies 28,7 (July 2019): 1850-1861.
14. Walters, Glenn D.
Peer Influence or Projection Bias? Predicting Respondent Delinquency with Perceptual Measures of Peer Delinquency in 22 Samples
Journal of Adolescence 70 (January 2019): 1-12.
Also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197118301921
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Britain, British; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations

Introduction: The current study was designed to determine whether the peer influence effect is the direct result of respondents projecting their own delinquency onto peers in a process referred to as projection bias.

Methods: Data from 22 gender-homogeneous U.S. and British samples (Ns = 154 to 4098) of individuals under the age of 17 at the time of initial assessment were used to create partial correlations between perceptual measures of peer delinquency and subsequent respondent offending, controlling for concurrent respondent offending.

Conclusions: These results are inconsistent with projection bias as a complete explanation for the peer influence effect and suggest that perceived peer delinquency has a demonstrable and meaningful effect on future offending in adolescents. Despite the lack of support for the projection hypothesis, there is still a need to include additional variables in the analyses (i.e., direct measures of peer delinquency and differential respondent opportunities to observe peer behavior) while entertaining alternative explanations of the perceived peer delinquency-future offending relationship (i.e., hearsay and rejecting delinquency/non-delinquency).

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Peer Influence or Projection Bias? Predicting Respondent Delinquency with Perceptual Measures of Peer Delinquency in 22 Samples." Journal of Adolescence 70 (January 2019): 1-12.
15. Walters, Glenn D.
Sex as a Moderator and Perceived Peer Pressure as a Mediator of the Externalizing-Delinquency Relationship: A Test of Gendered Pathways Theory
Journal of Criminal Justice 42,3 (May-June 2014): 299-305.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235214000312
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Gender Differences; Parent Supervision/Monitoring; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations

Purpose: The current study sought to determine whether sex moderated peer mediation of the externalizing-delinquency relationship as part of a larger test of the gendered pathways theory of crime.

Methods: Data gathered from 4,144 (2,079 males and 2,065 females) members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child sample were subjected to simple correlational and moderated mediation analysis.

Results: Externalizing behavior and delinquency correlated equally in boys and girls but in testing a full moderated mediation model it was discovered that sex moderated the mediating effect of perceived peer pressure on the externalizing–delinquency relationship. Whereas externalizing behavior predicted delinquency in both boys and girls, perceived peer pressure only mediated the externalizing-delinquency relationship in boys.

Conclusions: These results support the gendered pathways to delinquency model to the extent that the relationship between childhood externalizing behavior and delinquency was mediated by perceived peer pressure in males but not females. The implications of these results for theoretical refinement of the gendered pathways approach and crime prevention and intervention are discussed.

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Sex as a Moderator and Perceived Peer Pressure as a Mediator of the Externalizing-Delinquency Relationship: A Test of Gendered Pathways Theory." Journal of Criminal Justice 42,3 (May-June 2014): 299-305.
16. Walters, Glenn D.
Short-Term Goals and Physically Hedonistic Values as Mediators of the Past-Crime--Future-Crime Relationship
Legal and Criminological Psychology 20,1 (February 2015): 81-95.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lcrp.12014/abstract
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Behavioral Problems; Crime; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Risk-Taking; Self-Regulation/Self-Control

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate whether two features of antisocial cognition, short-term goals, and physically hedonistic values mediate the past-crime--future-crime relationship.

Methods: Data from 395 members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Data (NLSY-C) were used to test this hypothesis. A path analysis was performed, with past crime serving as the independent (predictor) variable, future crime serving as the dependent (outcome) variable, and short-term goals and physically hedonistic values serving as mediating variables. Results: The results of a structured equation modelling path analysis revealed a significant mediating effect for hedonistic values but not for short-term goals, when both variables were included in the same analysis. A causal mediation analysis was then conducted on the past crime → physically hedonistic values → future crime relationship, the results of which disclosed the presence of a partially mediated effect of physically hedonistic values on the past-crime--future-crime relationship after controlling for age, race, gender, and low self-control. When short-term goals were analysed separately, they also partially mediated the past-crime--future-crime relationship, although the effect was weaker than when physically hedonistic values served as the mediator.

Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. "Short-Term Goals and Physically Hedonistic Values as Mediators of the Past-Crime--Future-Crime Relationship." Legal and Criminological Psychology 20,1 (February 2015): 81-95.
17. Walters, Glenn D.
Kremser, Jon
Runell, Lindsey
In Search of the Origins of Crime Continuity: Aggressive Versus Nonaggressive Delinquency as a Key Factor in the Psychological Inertia Process
Aggressive Behavior 50,1 (January 2024).
Also: https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.22134
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Adolescence; Adolescent Behavior; Cognitive Impulsivity; Crime; Crime Continuity; Criminal Justice Theory; Delinquency, Aggressive; Delinquency, Non-Aggressive; Delinquency/Gang Activity; Moral Neutralization; Psychological Inertia Process

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The purpose of this study was to test whether the psychological inertia process believed to give rise to crime continuity is limited to aggressive delinquency or evolves from both aggressive and nonaggressive delinquency. Self-report data provided by 845 early adolescent youth (406 boys, 439 girls) were analyzed in an effort to test the hypothesis that aggressive rather than nonaggressive delinquency precipitates a rise in delinquency through the intervening influence of cognitive impulsivity but not moral neutralization. The hypothesis stated that of the four models evaluated in this study (aggressive delinquency → moral neutralization → offense variety; aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety; nonaggressive delinquency → moral neutralization → offense variety; nonaggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety), only the aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety model would achieve significance. Consistent with this hypothesis, only the aggressive delinquency → cognitive impulsivity → offense variety pathway was, in fact, significant. The current findings suggest that the psychological inertia process may be driven by a pattern of aggressive delinquency followed by cognitive impulsivity and that neither nonaggressive delinquency nor moral neutralization contribute to the process. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D., Jon Kremser and Lindsey Runell. "In Search of the Origins of Crime Continuity: Aggressive Versus Nonaggressive Delinquency as a Key Factor in the Psychological Inertia Process." Aggressive Behavior 50,1 (January 2024).
18. Walters, Glenn D.
Ruscio, John
Trajectories of Youthful Antisocial Behavior: Categories or Continua?
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 41,4 (May 2013): 653-666.
Also: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10802-012-9700-1
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavior, Antisocial; Children, Behavioral Development; Modeling, Growth Curve/Latent Trajectory Analysis; Scale Construction

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether qualitatively distinct trajectories of antisocial behavior could be identified in 1,708 children (843 boys, 865 girls) from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth–Child Data (NLSY-C). Repeated ratings were made on the Behavior Problems Index (BPI: Peterson and Zill Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 295–307, 1986) antisocial scale by the mothers of these children when the children were 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 years of age. Scores on three indicators constructed from the six BPI Antisocial items (callousness, aggression, noncompliance) were then analyzed longitudinally (by summing across the rating periods) and cross-sectionally (by testing each individual rating period) in the full sample as well as in subsamples of boys and girls. Results obtained with the mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum covariance (MAXCOV), and latent mode factor analysis (L-Mode) taxometric procedures revealed consistent evidence of continuous latent structure despite the fact Growth Mixture Modeling (GMM) and Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) identified between two and eight trajectories, depending on the stopping rule, in the three antisocial indicators. From these results, it is concluded that the structural model underlying these data is better represented as continuous rather than as categorical. The implications of these results for future research on developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior are discussed.
Bibliography Citation
Walters, Glenn D. and John Ruscio. "Trajectories of Youthful Antisocial Behavior: Categories or Continua?" Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 41,4 (May 2013): 653-666.