NCJ Number
175098
Journal
Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: January 1997 Pages: 71-87
Date Published
1997
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Data from 503 black, Hispanic, and white non-Hispanic adolescent females attending public schools in Miami were used to determine the prevalence of 13 self-reported delinquent behaviors, to compare these rates among the three groups of students, and to explore the predictive influences of several family factors that correlate with delinquency.
Abstract
Data were collected via questionnaires in fall 1991 from students in four schools selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected on race-ethnicity, theft/vandalism, major delinquency, family loyalty and pride, family communication, parent derogation, divorce, family drug abuse, and sibling drug use. Of the 503 respondents, 37.5 percent engaged in one or more acts of serious delinquency; the black respondents reported that they had engaged in significantly more of these behaviors. The best predictors of theft/vandalism were low family pride and family drug abuse for Hispanics, low family communication for African Americans, and low family pride for white non-Hispanics. However, only family pride, parent derogation, and family drug abuse were significantly related to major deviance. Findings indicated that traditional family factors that have repeatedly been used to understand delinquency by male adolescents were not strong predictors of delinquency among the adolescent females in the study. Findings also suggested the need for further research on the causes and correlates of adolescent female deviance. Tables, figures, and 38 references (Author abstract modified)