NCJ Number
251880
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 46 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2017 Pages: 1503-1514
Date Published
July 2017
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined 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 = 1,117), racially/ethnically diverse sample of male adolescents (46.55 percent Latino, 35.81 percent Black, 14.95 percent White, and 2.69 percent other race); in addition, the study considered how impulse control interacts with expectations, aspirations, and strain to motivate behavior.
Abstract
Although prior research has found 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 have considered how individual traits, such as impulsivity, affect the degree to which expectations and aspirations motivate or deter delinquent behavior. Findings of the current study 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. These 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. (Publisher abstract modified)