NCJ Number
119541
Date Published
1989
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents an overview of an integrated social psychological model of the etiology of delinquency and ADM (alcohol, drug, mental health) problem behaviors, discusses the methods used to test the model, and presents the results of the test.
Abstract
The model incorporates elements of traditional strain theory, social control (bonding) theory, and social learning theory. The basic modification to classical control theory required by the integration concerns the natural motivation assumption, i.e., the assumption that motivation for deviance is a constant and that the only source of variation related to delinquency or illicit drug use is variation in social controls or restraints on these behaviors. Data for the testing of the model were obtained from the National Youth Survey. Overall, the testing shows one of three distinct etiological paths for delinquency, substance use, and mental health problems. The path for both general delinquency and Index offending involves sex and delinquent peer group bonding. The path for substance use involves belief and delinquent peer group bonding, with some additional unique influence for marijuana use (family involvement) and alcohol use (age). For mental health problems, the etiological path involves the two family context variables (family involvement and normlessness), neither of which is strongly related to delinquency, along with race and school strain. 6 tables.