Factors affecting late adolescent delinquent behavior

Abstract

Adolescent delinquent behavior accounts for many problems in society and is affected by numerous factors. Factors examined by the current study include parenting, peer influences, religious influences, ethnicity, and gender. Participants consisted of 438 students (males = 176, females = 262) enrolled at Mississippi State University. Participants were Caucasian (71.9%), African American (23.1%), Hispanic (2.1%), Asian (1.1%), and other (1.6%) ethnicities. Delinquent behavior was correlated positively with permissive parenting and negatively with parental warmth and authoritative parenting. Delinquent behavior was correlated negatively with peer trust, communication, and positively with friends’ delinquent behavior. Additionally, intrinsic religiosity and strength of religious faith were correlated negatively with delinquent behavior. With all factors examined simultaneously in a regression, friends’ delinquent behavior was the strongest predictor and maternal permissive parenting remained significant. These results suggest more attention should be given to the dynamics of the transmission of delinquent behavior within a youth’s group of friends.