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The Relationship Between Academic Performance and Delinquent Behavior: Focusing on Strains Among Students With Unsatisfactory Academic Performance
Abstract
While many studies suggest that poor academic performance predicts delinquency, others have argued that the relationship between academic performance and delinquency can be marginal, null, or even spurious. This study examines the relationship between academic performance and delinquent behavior among Korean youth within the general strain framework, utilizing data from the Korean Child and Youth Panel Survey. Using a sample of 2,378 students from 95 randomly selected schools in Korea, the KCYP survey examined students’ perceptions and experiences regarding relationships with parents, teachers, and peers, as well as their engagement in various delinquent behaviors. Group-based trajectory modeling identified two academic trajectory groups: consistently low academic grades and declining academic performance. Two dichotomous variables representing these academic trajectory groups were included in the negative binomial regression models. After accounting for the effects of other strain-related and social/self-control variables, the effects of low academic performance on delinquent behavior become spurious while a decline in academic performance is a consistent predictor of delinquent behavior across all models.
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This article compares the psychological and behavioral profiles of adolescents on probation and high school students. A total of 253 adolescents on probation and 257 high school students completed an open-ended questionnaire developed by the present researchers and structured questionnaire that assessed moral disengagement and self-efficacy developed by Bandura (1995), delinquent behavior and academic achievement. Adolescents on probation reported that they engaged in delinquent behavior due to the fault of others and they were angry for being forced to be on probation. They are not likely to take responsibility and morally disengage from their delinquent actions. When compared to high school students, adolescents on probation are likely to report low self-efficacy, not low academic grade, and less likely to feel proud of themselves. They are more likely to meet their friends in Internet and video game rooms and less likely to focus on academic achievement. Results of ANOVA indicate that adolescents on probation have higher scores on moral disengagement, social efficacy, but lower score on efficacy for self-regulated learning. They are more likely to run away from home and have lower academic grade. The results of the discriminant analysis indicate that running away from home, social efficacy and moral disengagement are predictive of adolescents on probation and academic achievement and efficacy for self-regulated learning are predictive of high school students.
Background
Group-based trajectory modelling (GBTM) is increasingly used to identify subgroups of individuals with similar patterns. In this paper, we use simulated and real-life data to illustrate that GBTM is susceptible to generating spurious findings in some circumstances.
Methods
Six plausible scenarios, two of which mimicked published analyses, were simulated. Models with 1 to 10 trajectory subgroups were estimated and the model that minimized the Bayes criterion was selected. For each scenario, we assessed whether the method identified the correct number of trajectories, the correct shapes of the trajectories, and the mean number of participants of each trajectory subgroup. The performance of the average posterior probabilities, relative entropy and mismatch criteria to assess classification adequacy were compared.
Results
Among the six scenarios, the correct number of trajectories was identified in two, the correct shapes in four and the mean number of participants of each trajectory subgroup in only one. Relative entropy and mismatch outperformed the average posterior probability in detecting spurious trajectories.
Conclusion
Researchers should be aware that GBTM can generate spurious findings, especially when the average posterior probability is used as the sole criterion to evaluate model fit. Several model adequacy criteria should be used to assess classification adequacy.
Early onset delinquency is a risk factor for offending over the life-course. This study aims to identify factors that modify the link between early onset of delinquency and later violence. Results show that engaging delinquency earlier, associating with deviant friends, and experiencing parental abuse have independent impacts on increased risk of violence. Also, early onset has positive interactions with peer delinquency and parental abuse. These findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which early onset of delinquency is related to later violence and imply the importance of family- and school-based early interventions. Findings also highlight the importance of considering interactions between early onset delinquency and social risk factors in refining theories used to explain violence throughout the life course.
In intense academic environments such as in South Korea, students experience extreme levels of academic stress. This stress peaks as students prepare for the college entrance exam in the final year of high school. Stress is associated with a host of negative outcomes, and academic stress is the leading cause of suicidal ideation among youth in South Korea. Research suggests that in high-stress contexts such as this, social capital can improve academic success and mental health, while reducing risky or deviant behaviors. However, this research has predominantly focused on Western contexts. Because of the unique intensity of educational pursuits and intense investment in education by parents, South Korea provides a compelling case for research on the effects of family and school social capital on youth academic stress. Using data from the Korea Youth Panel Survey (N = 2753), we find that particular components of family and school social capital can both reduce and exacerbate academic stress. While measures of closeness and connection to parents reduced academic stress, school social capital had a limited impact on academic stress. Furthermore, there may be a limit to the effectiveness of social capital to help with academic stress before it becomes too much of a good thing.
Despite the important role of schools in influencing juvenile delinquency, limited research has investigated the contextual effects of schools on delinquency. Using the framework of macro-level strain theory, this study investigates the effects of school-level strain on delinquent behavior among Chinese adolescents. The sample comprises 1411 adolescents from 32 middle schools in Guangzhou, a large city in Southern China. Results from multilevel regression models show that school-aggregated level of strain is positively associated with both self-destructive and other-directed delinquent behaviors, after adjusting for individual strain and other sociodemographic variables. Specifically, school-level anticipated educational goal blockage and negative treatment by teachers are positively associated with self-destructive behavior, whereas school mean level of negative treatment by peers is positively related to other-directed behavior. Although individual-level strain is positively associated with both types of delinquency, it only partially mediates the effect of school-level strain on self-destructive delinquent behavior. This study also investigates whether school-level variables may condition the strain-delinquency relationship. The results show a significant interaction between personal strain and overall delinquent schoolmates on both self- and other-directed delinquent behaviors, indicating that school-level delinquent peers significantly exacerbate the effect of strain on delinquent behaviors. These findings suggest that the effort to reduce juvenile delinquency should target practices to alleviate both individual strain and aggregate strain, and provide more resources and support for students, particularly those in schools with substantial disruptive student behaviors, to legitimately cope with strains.
The present longitudinal study examined the reliability of self-reported academic grades across three phases in four subject domains for a sample of 916 high-school students. Self-reported grades were found to be highly positively correlated with actual grades in all academic subjects and across grades 9 to 11 underscoring the reliability of self-reported grades as an achievement indicator. Reliability of self-reported grades was found to differ across subject areas (e.g., mathematics self-reports more reliable than language studies), with a slight yet consistent tendency to over-report achievement levels also observed across grade levels and academic subjects. Overall, the absolute value of over- and underreporting was low and these patterns were not found to differ between mathematics and verbal subjects. In sum, study findings demonstrate the consistent predictive utility of students’ self-reported achievement across grade levels and subject areas with the observed tendency to over-report academic grades and slight differences between domains nonetheless warranting consideration in future education research.
Objectives
This paper addresses a central problem in general strain theory (GST): the mixed results regarding those factors said to condition the effect of strains on crime. We test Agnew’s (Deviant Behav 34(8):653–670, 2013) assertion that a criminal response to strain is likely only when individuals score high on several factors that increase the propensity for criminal coping or possess markers that indicate a strong propensity for criminal coping.
Methods
We use survey data from nearly 6000 juveniles from across the United States to examine whether the effect of criminogenic strains across several domains—perceptions of police, school environment, and victimization—on crime are conditioned by: (1) respondents’ criminal propensity and (2) gang membership. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first criminological study to employ an analytical framework that simultaneously considers nonlinear (i.e., curvilinear) dynamics, non-additive (i.e., interactive) effects, and non-normally distributed dependent variables. This approach has the advantage of properly differentiating nonlinear and non-additive dimensions and therefore significantly improving our understanding of conditioning effects.
Results
We find considerable support for Agnew’s (2013) postulation about conditioning effects and GST. Criminal behavior is more likely among those with a strong overall propensity for criminal coping and among gang members. Furthermore, we discover that the conditioning effects are, themselves, nonlinear. That is, the effect of criminal propensity on moderating the relationship between our three measures of strain and delinquency varies across the range of the criminal propensity index. Our models that simultaneously consider both the non-additive and nonlinear relationship between strains, criminal propensity, and criminal offending better fit the data than models that consider these dimensions separately. These results hold whether examining a composite measure of criminal activity or, alternatively, three separate subscales indexing violent, property, and drug offenses.
Conclusion
Our study advances GST and the crime literature by identifying the types of strained individuals most likely to engage in criminal coping. Additionally, the analytical framework we adopt serves as a model for the correct measurement and interpretation of conditioning effects for criminological data, which almost invariably violate the assumptions of the linear regression model. Parametric interactions are the most commonly investigated type of interactions, but other kinds of interactions are also plausible and may reveal conditional relationships that are either overlooked or understated when analysts adopt a fully parametric framework. We demonstrate the utility of expressly modeling both the nonlinear effects of component variables in an interaction and the nonlinear nature of the conditioning effect.
In recent years, student surveys have played an increasingly large role in educational research, policy making, and, particularly, accountability efforts. However, research on the accuracy of students’ self-reports about themselves and their education is limited to analyses of overall grade point average and ACT/SAT standardized test scores. Using a unique data set, we investigate the accuracy of students’ survey responses to questions about their course taking and grades in mathematics during high school. We then analyze which student and survey characteristics influence accuracy. We find that students are reasonably good reporters of course-taking patterns but poor reporters of more potentially sensitive questions, including when the student completed Algebra I and the grade earned in the course. We find that lack of accuracy in student survey reports is consistently related to several student characteristics.
This study explores inflation in high school grade point average (HSGPA), defined as
trend over time in the conditional average of HSGPA, given ACT® Composite score. The
time period considered is 2004 to 2011. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the study updates
a previous analysis of Woodruff and Ziomek (2004). The study also investigates variation in
grade inflation across high schools and how this variation is related to school demographic
characteristics. Although researchers have demonstrated the existence of high school grade
inflation before 2001, results from this study show little evidence of overall grade inflation in
recent years. There is, however, significant variation in grade inflation/deflation among high
schools. This variation was not found to be related to different levels of school poverty or
minority enrollment.
This study focused on the influence of risk and protective factors on juvenile delinquency in South Korea. The study also investigated the relationship between risk and protective factors. The first wave of data in the Korea Youth Panel Survey included 3,449 adolescents. Data analysis included exploratory factor analysis, regression analysis, and analysis of variance. Analysis revealed that parental monitoring and teacher attachment as protective factors were both associated with lower levels of delinquency. Moreover, delinquent peers and poor parenting as risk factors were associated with high levels of delinquency. The relationships between parent attachment and delinquency and between academic performance and delinquency were found to be nonsignificant. Finally, protective factors mitigated risk factor effects on delinquency levels.
This study aimed to compare key predictors of academic resilience in the distinctive socio-cultural contexts of South Korea and the United States, employing a machine-learning-based random forest technique. Using PISA 2018 data, we focused on students in the bottom 25% of family socioeconomic status, totaling 1,654 in South Korea and 1,175 in the US. The results showed that individual factors, such as meta-cognition, joy of reading, self-concept of reading, and work mastery, were ranked highly in both countries. On the other hand, self-efficacy and students’ expectation of higher education were specific to Korea, while fixed mindset and meaning in life were specific to the US. Based on these findings, this study highlighted the need for culturally responsive policies to nurture academic resilience among disadvantaged youth.
Although research has established that school adjustment is associated with marijuana use (MU) in adolescence, few studies have tested these associations bidirectionally. Using random intercepts cross‐lagged panel modeling, this study examined reciprocal associations between MU and school adjustment across 8th to 10th grade, including the transition to high school. Participants included 5470 rural adolescents (59% White, 41% Black) aged 12–17 years in 2002–2005. School adjustment factors predicted subsequent MU (i.e., higher self‐reported grades were protective for Black and White youth; valuing education was protective for Black youth; school behavior problems predicted increased MU across the transition to high school for White youth). MU had several adverse effects on school adjustment, particularly during the transition to high school.
This study tests Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) using a national panel survey of Korean youth. The Korean Youth Panel Survey was conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute of Korea and interviewed a randomly selected sample of youth from 2003 to 2007. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, this study specifically examines the effects of family strain, school strain, and peer strain on delinquency patterns of Korean youth and examines whether the relationship between strain and delinquency is controlled by the youth’s attachments to family, teachers or peers, their exposure to delinquent peers, or self- control. According to the GST, delinquent responses to strain are more likely to occur in the presence of deviant conditions. The use of Korean data expands testing of the General Strain Theory to non-western samples, allowing examination of the relevance of this framework in non-western settings. The current study revealed that school strain has a consistent significant effect on both aggressive behavior and status offense, even after adding control factors. Finally, policy implications based on findings are discussed.
The present study examined the longitudinal trajectory of academic performance and associated ecological correlates among children with substance using mothers. The promotive effects of academic performance in ameliorating delinquent and aggressive behaviors were also examined. The sample consisted of 183 children (Mage = 11.5; SD = 2.6; 48% female) whose mothers sought outpatient treatment through a local substance use treatment facility in the United States. Participants were assessed using a battery of self-assessments questionnaires querying academic performance, delinquent and aggressive behaviors, parenting behaviors, peer relationships and coping. A group-based trajectory analysis revealed three distinct trajectory groups of academic performance: high-, medium-, and low- performing groups, and higher levels of academic performance were associated with lower levels of delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Findings also showed that mother’s support for child’s psychological autonomy and child’s task-oriented coping were positively associated with child’s academic performance, implicating crucial intervention targets to improve academic performance of children with substance using mothers.
South Korea has ranked first in suicide mortality among the 35 OECD nations since 2003. Unfortunately, mental health research and evidence-based interventions to curb the rate of suicide have been limited. Suicide is the leading cause of death among South Korean adolescents. Academic stress is a primary risk factor, which is highly correlated with depression. Social stigma against mental illnesses and negative relationships with peers and parents are additional risk factors, while positive relationships may be protective. We propose a multi-dimensional solution, involving the participation of schools, peers and parents to decrease the rate of adolescent suicide in South Korea.
This study examines the relationship between academic achievement and subjective well-being (SWB) of South Korean children, focusing on the mediating role of academic stress and the moderating role of perceived fairness of parents and teachers. Previous studies have shown a positive association between academic achievement and SWB among children and youth. However, the underlying mechanisms of this association have not been fully elucidated. We hypothesized that (1) academic stress would mediate the relationship between academic achievement and two SWB indicators, life satisfaction and positive affect, and (2) perceived fairness of parents and teachers would moderate the relationship between academic stress and two SWB indicators. To test these hypotheses, this study analyzed data from a subsample (ages 10 and 12, n = 4705) of the 2013 South Korean data from the International Survey of Children's Well-Being.
The results suggest that (1) academic achievement is positively related to life satisfaction and positive affect, partially mediated through academic stress (e.g., a higher academic achievement is associated with a lower academic stress, which in turn relates to higher SWB), and (2) the negative relationships between academic stress and two SWB indicators are moderated by a perceived fairness of parents and teachers (e.g., perceived higher fairness buffers the effect of academic stress on SWB). The implications of these findings are discussed.
Bullying victimization has been directly associated with a variety of negative outcomes, but there are still many unknowns as to how deleterious emotional states resulting from victimization influence other undesirable events. The current study draws on Agnew’s general strain theory to examine multiple outcomes of youth victimized by repeated bullying prior to adolescence. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 were used to examine indicators of diminished moods and negative emotions on substance use for bullying victims in adolescence and again during young adulthood. Findings from various LISERL models indicate that bullying victimization directly increases diminished moods for males and females in adolescence. Additionally, childhood bullying victimization directly increases substance use in adolescence and young adulthood for males but not females. Finally, diminished moods in adolescence and negative emotions in young adulthood increase substance use for females but not for males. Policy implications and limitations for this analysis are discussed.
Considerable research has addressed whether various academic factors affect involvement in delinquent behavior among youth. Yet few studies have assessed the association between academic underachievement and delinquency. Academic underachievement is defined as school performance, such as measured by grades, that falls below what is predicted by standardized tests of mental/cognitive ability. Using two waves of longitudinal data (n = 11,223), this study aimed to evaluate this association and determine if it is affected by school attachment, family relations, parental education, or self-control. The results of the empirical model suggested a modest association between academic underachievement and delinquent behavior, but it was partially attenuated by attention deficits, an indicator of low self-control. Additional analyses indicated that attention deficits were associated with both underachievement and delinquent behavior.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether low self-efficacy for future academic success and peer delinquency mediated the relationship between weak parental support and delinquency, and if so, establish the order of mediation. Members of the Flint (Michigan) Adolescent Study (N = 850) served as participants in this study, which compared a pathway based on social control principles (weak parental support → low self-efficacy → peer delinquency → participant delinquency) with a pathway based on social learning principles (weak parental support → peer delinquency → low self-efficacy → delinquency). Path analysis was conducted and revealed that the social control pathway was significant, the social learning pathway was nonsignificant, and the difference between the two pathways was significant. These results suggest that low parental support facilitates delinquency, in part, by lowering self-efficacy for future academic success, a component of the larger construct of self-efficacy for conventional behavior, which, in turn, promotes delinquent peer associations. From a theoretical perspective, these results are more consistent with a social control interpretation of the parental support–delinquency relationship than with a social learning interpretation, although aspects of social learning theory were also supported by the results of this study.
General Strain Theory (GST) places importance on the experience of negative emotional states resulting from exposure to stressful and/or negative events. Subsequent research has suggested that identifying strain might be contingent upon the use of objective or subjective measures of strain, and that the types of delinquent outcomes assessed might mediate the significance of the findings. Using a sample non-traditional high school students, this study examines whether objective or subjective measures of academic strain will explain involvement in both substance use (e.g., alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs) or delinquent offending. Results and policy implications are provided.
Purpose
This study examined the independent effects of child abuse on self-control and delinquency and explored whether self-control mediates the child abuse-delinquency relationship.
Methods
We employed path modeling in Mplus to examine the relationship between child abuse, self-control, and delinquency using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health).
Results
Net of theoretically important controls, child abuse has direct and indirect effects on delinquency, and the relationship is partially explained by low self-control.
Conclusions
Child abuse has an independent influence on levels of self-control, supporting a proposition made by general strain theory, and self-control partially mediates the oft-observed relationship between child abuse and delinquency.
Background:
Children and adolescents exposed to chronic trauma have a greater risk for mental health disorders and school failure. Children and adolescents of minority racial/ethnic groups and those living in poverty are at greater risk of exposure to trauma and less likely to have access to mental health services. School-based health centers (SBHCs) may be one strategy to decrease health disparities.
Methods:
Empirical studies between 2003 and 2013 of US pediatric populations and of US SBHCs were included if research was related to childhood trauma's effects, mental health care disparities, SBHC mental health services, or SBHC impact on academic achievement.
Results:
Eight studies show a significant risk of mental health disorders and poor academic achievement when exposed to childhood trauma. Seven studies found significant disparities in pediatric mental health care in the US. Nine studies reviewed SBHC mental health service access, utilization, quality, funding, and impact on school achievement.
Conclusion:
Exposure to chronic childhood trauma negatively impacts school achievement when mediated by mental health disorders. Disparities are common in pediatric mental health care in the United States. SBHC mental health services have some showed evidence of their ability to reduce, though not eradicate, mental health care disparities.
This study examined how cyber delinquency changes over time and we identified how predictors influence these changes. We analyzed Korean Youth Panel data collected by the National Youth Policy Institute over five years for 2844 Korean adolescents living in 7 metropolitan cities and 8 provinces, using hierarchical linear modeling. The results are as follows. Cyber delinquency linearly increased over time. Greater computer use and perceived stress were related to more cyber delinquency, while greater self-control ability and community attachment were associated with less cyber delinquency. More computer use and offline bullying victimization were related to an acceleration of the increase of cyber delinquency over time. While, greater self-control ability was associated with a deceleration of the increase of cyber delinquency as time passed. The strongest predictor was amount of computer use, followed by self-control, and then by offline bullying victimization.
Using data from the 2008 Youth in Europe Survey, this study applies general strain theory of deviance to suicidal behaviors of Turkish adolescents. The effects of various socioenvironmental strains on suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt, including mediating effects of negative affective states, are investigated. Results indicate that Agnew’s theory provides a useful theoretical model for researchers of adolescent suicidality. Almost all of the strain measures were significantly associated with both suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt, and measures of anger and depression at least partially mediated the effects of the strains. Other results, implications, and limitations of the study are discussed.
The extent to which poor academic achievement is strongly related to delinquency among Southeast Asian Americans (SEAA) remains unclear; reasons are methodological limitations and aggregated findings for Asian Americans, which mask evidence that SEAA have a higher prevalence of criminality and poor academic performance than other Asian American groups. The present study examines the academic achievement—delinquency relationship in a diverse group of 1,214 SEAA using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to make causal inferences and assess whether poor academic achieving SEAA, after being matched with higher academic achieving SEAA, displayed a higher prevalence of delinquency. Findings showed that, even after matching, poor academic achieving SEAA were still more likely to exhibit delinquent behavior than those who performed academically better. Interventions targeting SEAA communities will need to focus more on improving academic achievement to directly prevent and decrease delinquent behavior.
Few tests of General Strain Theory (GST) have examined the relative effects of objective and subjective strains on delinquency and the mediating effects of situational-based negative emotions linking strains to delinquency. With a sample of approximately 800 Korean adolescents, the present study tests a model that includes five key objective and the corresponding subjective strains identified as most predictive of delinquency, and situational-based anger and depression in response to each strain. Regardless of whether conceptualized as objective or subjective, three strains (teachers’ punishment, gender discrimination, and criminal victimization) have positive effects on delinquent behaviors. No indicators of situational-based anger and depression (except anger in response to victimization in a negative direction) have direct effects on delinquency or have mediating effects linking strains to delinquency. The results provide limited support for GST’s specification of the relatively greater effects of subjective than objective strains on delinquency and mediating effects of situational-based negative emotions. Theoretical implications are discussed.
Objective
Previous studies have shown that academic achievement has a significant effect on juvenile delinquency, with the reverse reported as well. This study, therefore, examined the reciprocal causal relationships between academic achievement and juvenile delinquency.
Methods
The participants were 3449 Korean adolescents (mean age 13.2 years, standard deviation (SD)=0.4 at Time 1) from the Korea Youth Panel Survey. They were followed from the 8th to the 11th grade. A cross-lagged autoregressive model with four-year longitudinal data was used for the analysis.
Results
For all grades (Time 1 through Time 4), juvenile delinquency was negatively affected by low academic achievement, while no effects of delinquency on academic achievement were indicated.
Conclusion
There was a significant prediction from academic achievement for juvenile delinquency, rather than reciprocal influences between academic achievement and juvenile delinquency among Korean adolescents, which is different from Western counterparts. This study contributes to theoretical understanding of relations between academic achievement and delinquency in diverse cultural settings and interventions to promote optimal social health.
Using comparable self-reported survey data collected among college students in the United States (n = 502) and Japan (n = 441), this study examines a paradox of higher academic deviance among otherwise more conforming Japanese youth while revisiting the debate concerning the disjuncture between aspirations and expectations/perceived outcomes in Agnew's general strain theory (GST). Confirming the paradox, our results indicate that Japanese students are significantly more deviant academically than American students. However, contrary to the expectation of GST, but in support of past empirical studies, the higher academic deviance among the Japanese, as compared to Americans, is explained by their lower aspirations, irrespective of the levels of expectations/perceived outcomes
Background
Youth programs often rely on self-reported data without clear evidence as to the accuracy of these reports. Although the validity of self-reporting has been confirmed among some high school and college age students, one area that is absent from extant literature is a serious investigation among younger children. Moreover, there is theoretical evidence suggesting limited generalizability in extending findings on older students to younger populations.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of academic and attendance self-reporting among children and youth.
Method
This study relies on original data collected from 288 children and youth using Big Brothers Big Sisters enrollment and assessment data, paired with school-records from two local school divisions. Initially, we utilized percent agreement, validity coefficients, and average measures ICC scores to assess the response validity of self-reported academic and attendance measures. We then estimated the affects of several moderating factors on reporting agreement (using standardized difference scores). We also accounted for cross-informant associations with child reported GPA using a moderated multiple regression model.
Results
Findings indicate that children and youth report their individual grades and attendance poorly. Particularly, younger and lower performing children are more likely to report falsely. However, there is some evidence that a mean construct measure of major subjects GPA is a slightly more valid indicator of academic achievement.
Conclusion
Findings suggest that researchers and practitioners should exercise caution in using self-reported grades and attendance indicators from young and low-performing students.
The present study of 659 Korean adolescents tests General Strain Theory’s (GST) utility in explaining gender differences in delinquency causation. It models the effects of key strains, negative emotions, and a composite measure of several conditioning factors separately for boys and girls and for delinquency. Consistent with the theory, males and females experience different strains and different emotions in response, and they vary in influences hypothesized to alter the connections of strains or emotions to delinquency. Strains that males experience more than females are significantly related to their violent and property delinquency, and those concentrated among females explain their status offending. For boys, family conflict influences different types of delinquency and examination-related strain predicts violent and status offending. The empirical research suggested that GST falls short in explaining boys’ and girls’ property and status offending, and in showing how a composite measure of conditioning factors act as a moderator in explaining their delinquency.
Sociologists have posited a relationship between self-esteem and delinquent behavior, though there is some disagreement about its direction and form. This review of recent panel analyses assessing the various theoretical viewpoints shows consistent support for only one of the posited relationships-that delinquent activity reduces subsequent self-esteem-and the support is rather weak. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the self-esteem-delinquent activity reduces subsequent self-esteem-and the support is rather weak. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the self-esteem-delinquency relationship, employing a three-wave panel study of adolescents which contains multiple measures of self-esteem and substantively interpretable subscales of self-reported delinquent behavior. The results show that the effect of self-esteem on subsequent self-esteem. These findings are robust across various subgroups of age, gender, family type, race, and mother's education. They are also consistent across the various measures of self-esteem and delinquent behavior. The weakness of the results suggests that researchers look elsewhere than self-esteem for a fuller understanding of delinquency.
The goal of this study was to examine the mediating role of negative emotions in the link between academic stress and Internet addiction among Korean adolescents. We attempted to extend the general strain theory to Internet addiction by exploring psychological pathways from academic stress to Internet addiction using a national and longitudinal panel study. A total of 512 adolescents completed self-reported scales for academic stress, negative emotions, and Internet addiction. We found that academic stress was positively associated with negative emotions and Internet addiction, and negative emotions were positively associated with Internet addiction. Further, the results of structural equation modeling revealed that adolescents’ academic stress had indirectly influenced Internet addiction through negative emotions. The results of this study suggest that adolescents who experience academic stress might be at risk for Internet addiction, particularly when accompanied with negative emotions. These findings provided significant implications for counselors and policymakers to prevent adolescents’ Internet addiction, and extended the general strain theory to Internet addiction which is typically applicable to deviant behavior.
To model the relationship between strains and delinquency in a non-Western national context, the present study integrated information on adolescence in South Korea with prior theoretical and empirical work on general strain theory (GST) to explain delinquency. The sample included just under 400 adolescents in technical and college preparatory high schools in South Korea. Two types of strain, examination related strain and emotional and physical abuse by teachers, which are usually ignored in studies in the United States, are included as independent variables to increase relevance to the South Korean context. Parts of GST are very useful in explaining delinquency: (1) there is a relatively strong direct relationship between emotional and physical abuse by teachers and delinquency and (2) the interaction between emotional and physical abuse by teachers and delinquent friends is strongly related to delinquency. The efficacy of teachers' use of practices defined in the study as emotional and physical abuse, even if these practices are intended to help youth, is highly questionable. The culturally specific adaptation of general strain theory increases theoretical generalizablility and suggests a direction for theory and research in different countries. Relevant to recent trends in immigration throughout the world, the reformulation also suggests the need to consider different cultural contexts within the United States and other countries.
A meta-analysis of naturalistic studies of the academic performance-delinquency relationship and of intervention studies aimed both at improving academic performance and reducing delinquency found that children with lower academic performance offended more frequently, committed more serious and violent offenses, and persisted in their offending. The association was stronger for males than females and for whites than for African Americans. Academic performance predicted delinquency independent of socioeconomic status. Some intervention and prevention programs, using law-related or moral education components with adolescent children and self-control, social skills, and parent training components with young school-age children, were found to effect significant improvements in academic performance and delinquency.
Assessments of college academic achievement tend to rely on self-reported GPA values, yet evidence is limited regarding the accuracy of those values. With a sample of 194 undergraduate college students, the present study examined whether accuracy of self-reported GPA differed based on level of academic performance or level of academic self-efficacy and whether those differences were moderated by gender and year in college. Significant gender differences were found only within the lower academic performance group and the lower academic self-efficacy group, with females on average overreporting their actual college GPA and males on average underreporting their actual college GPA. Thus, research on college achievement that is conducted with students in lower achieving groups or with lower academic self-efficacy may benefit from the use of university-record GPA data as opposed to self-report data and may need to consider gender differences carefully to guard against potential bias in self-reported values for these groups.
We explored the direction of causation and the longitudinal significance of the relationship between the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent academic stress. We analyzed responses from the Korean Youth Panel Survey (KYPS), a longitudinal survey that has taken place over 5 years. Just over 2,400 valid responses were analyzed using autoregressive cross-lagged modeling. The results revealed that the parent-adolescent relationship and academic stress experienced by students during 1 year were significant predictors of the levels of stress felt in subsequent years. The central finding in this study was that the closer the parent-adolescent relationship, the greater was the intensity of the adolescents' academic stress. We posited possible explanations for these findings in the context of Korean culture.
Many studies have addressed whether delinquent behavior is associated with various aspects of schooling and academics. However, this research has been limited to examining unidirectional effects. Building on Thornberry's interactional theory, we develop a conceptual model that posits reciprocal associations among delinquent behavior, school attachment, and academic achievement. The model is tested with two waves from the Add Health data set (n = 9,381) that include measures of transcript grade point average (GPA). The results of a set of structural equation models provide evidence that academic achievement is associated with less delinquent behavior over time, as well as with higher school attachment. However, the effects of delinquency are limited to an attenuating effect on subsequent school attachment; delinquency does not directly influence academic achievement. Thus, we find only partial support for interactional theory.
Children (0-18 years) with maltreatment histories are vulnerable to experiencing difficulties across multiple domains of functioning, including educational outcomes that encompass not only academic achievement but also mental well-being. The current literature review adopted Slade and Wissow's model to examine (1) the link between childhood maltreatment and academic achievement, (2) the link between childhood maltreatment and mental health outcomes (i.e., emotional and behavioral difficulties), and (3) the bidirectional relationship between childhood academic achievement and mental health. In addition, we reviewed variables that might influence or help explain the link between childhood maltreatment and educational outcomes, drawing on developmental perspectives and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. Finally, whenever possible, we presented findings specific to maltreated children in out-of-home care to highlight the unique challenges experienced by this population. Results indicated that children with maltreatment histories often experience impairments in both their academic performance (e.g., special education, grade retention, lower grades) and mental well-being (e.g., anxiety, low mood, aggression, social skills deficits, poor interpersonal relationships). These impairments appeared to be particularly pronounced among maltreated children in out-of-home care. Findings, albeit sparse, also indicated that mental health difficulties are negatively associated with children's academic achievement and, similarly, that academic achievement deficits are linked with mental health problems. The link between childhood maltreatment and educational outcomes may be partly explained through the disruption of key developmental processes in children, such as attachment, emotion regulation, and sense of agency. As well, maltreatment characteristics and the functioning of various systems in which children are embedded (e.g., family, school, child welfare) can serve to positively or negatively influence the educational outcomes of maltreated children. The theoretical, research, and applied implications stemming from the findings are considered.
