Sagot :
Answer:
Abstract
Objective
Social control theory assumes that the ability of social constraints to deter juvenile delinquency will be invariant across individuals. This paper tests this hypothesis and examines the degree to which there are differential effects of parental controls on adolescent substance use.
Methods
Analyses are based on self-reported data from 7,349 10th-grade students and rely on regression mixture models to identify latent classes of individuals who may vary in the effects of parental controls on drug use.
Results
All parental controls were significantly related to adolescent drug use, with higher levels of control associated with less drug use. The effects of instrumental parental controls (e.g., parental management strategies) on drug use were shown to vary across individuals, while expressive controls (e.g., parent/child attachment) had uniform effects in reducing drug use. Specifically, poor family management and more favorable parental attitudes regarding children’s drug use and delinquency had stronger effects on drug use for students who reported greater attachment to their neighborhoods, less acceptance of adolescent drug use by neighborhood residents, and fewer delinquent peers, compared to those with greater community and peer risk exposure. Parental influences were also stronger for Caucasian students versus those from other racial/ethnic groups, but no differences in effects were found based on students’ gender or commitment to school.
Conclusions
The findings demonstrate support for social control theory, and also help to refine and add precision to this perspective by identifying groups of individuals for whom parental controls are most influential. Further, they offer an innovative methodology that can be applied to any criminological theory to examine the complex forces that result in illegal behavior.
Keywords: social control theory, adolescent substance use, risk and protective factors, regression mixture models
1. Introduction
Criminological theories attempt to identify the circumstances that cause individuals to engage in or refrain from law-breaking activities. Most prominent theories attempt to avoid overly complex statements about criminal behavior. Instead, they seek to explain crime with succinct, specific, and relatively few hypotheses regarding the primary causes of crime and how these causes lead to offending behavior (Tittle, 1995). For example, control theory states that juvenile delinquency occurs “when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken” (Hirschi, 1969, p. 16). While theories should be parsimonious, it is also true that the causes of criminal behavior are complex and theories that are too simplistic will lack precision and the ability to explain a significant amount of criminal behavior (Bernard & Snipes, 1996; Tittle, 1995).
While theoretical elaboration is needed in order to increase precision and explanatory value---for example, by more fully delineating the individuals for whom theoretically-identified precursors of offending are most salient (Tittle, 1995)---empirical research can also assist in this process. Such work can help to identify the specific experiences, conditions, and individual characteristics that influence offending; or, stated conversely, to identify constructs that affect the direction and/or strength of the relationships between independent and dependent variables. These types of empirical studies are becoming more common, but advanced statistical methods for modeling such conditions have been under-developed and under-utilized. The goal of this paper is to introduce and explore the use of regression mixture models (Desarbo, Jedidi, & Sinha, 2001; Van Horn et al., 2009; Wedel & Desarbo, 1995) for investigating differences in the effects associated, in this case, with social control theory. Regression mixture models allow the specification of groups (i.e., latent classes) of individuals for whom the relationship between an independent and dependent variable is most influential. In this paper, we examine potential heterogeneity in the effects of social constraints on delinquency; specifically: 1) the degree to which parental controls have varying levels of influence on adolescent substance use, and 2) the characteristics of individuals for whom parental controls are most important.