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Title: Emotional Health and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Assessment of Early Emotional and Behavioral Problems as Risk Factors for Delinquent Behavior
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Sullivan, Christopher J. |
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Emotional Health and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Assessment of Early Emotional and Behavioral Problems as Risk Factors for Delinquent Behavior Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey - Newark, School of Criminal Justice, May 2005. DAI-A 66/04, p. 1508, Oct 2005 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Delinquency/Gang Activity; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Parental Influences; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; Variables, Independent - Covariate Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the study of multi-problem youth. Studies in justice and treatment facilities show a high degree of crossover between youth with emotional health problems and delinquent behavior. Developmental studies of delinquency have emphasized the role of emotional and behavioral problems early in life as well. Despite the increase in attention to this problem, several issues have yet to be fully addressed. First, most studies are conducted with samples of youth who have already had contact with a juvenile justice or treatment agency, and, as a result, have generalizability problems. Second, most studies are cross-sectional, which prevents statements about causality. Third, researchers have not fully examined other empirically-identified risk factors for delinquency (e.g., delinquent peers, parenting deficiencies), which limits the scope of their influence in criminology. Lastly, most samples have been relatively small, which reduces statistical power and leads to unstable estimates. As a result, the use of advanced statistical modeling techniques is often precluded. This study utilizes a nationally-representative sample with a broad array of measures collected over several waves (N = 1612). The National Longitudinal Study of Youth 79 (NLSY 79) is a study of human social development sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Measures included in the study cover domains important in explaining delinquency, such as family and community risk/protection, and emotional and behavioral problems. Items pertaining to delinquent behavior in late childhood and adolescence are included as well. The NLSY data facilitated covariance structure analysis of a predictive model for delinquency that includes emotional and behavioral problems and other risk and protective factors within a developmental framework. Understanding emotional and behavioral problems and delinquency in the context of other key covariates allowed for theoretica elaboration as well as policy and treatment development. The proposed model fit these data fairly well. Although there was discontinuity across developmental stages, emotional and behavioral problems at earlier stages influenced delinquent behavior in late childhood and adolescence. Family, individual, and peer variables had effects on delinquency as well. Several policy and theoretical implications are discussed and directions for future research are proposed. |
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Bibliography Citation
Sullivan, Christopher J. Emotional Health and Delinquency: A Longitudinal Assessment of Early Emotional and Behavioral Problems as Risk Factors for Delinquent Behavior. Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey - Newark, School of Criminal Justice, May 2005. DAI-A 66/04, p. 1508, Oct 2005. |