Self-Control and Lifestyles: Associations to Juvenile Offending, Violent Victimization, and Witnessing Violence

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Poster Session on the Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Abstract

The present study examined the concurrent relation of individual components of self-control and lifestyle measures to juvenile offending, direct victimization, and witnessing violence among high school students, controlling for neighbourhood hazards and demographic characteristics. Self-report, school records, and neurocognitive test data were provided by a sample of N= 233 predominantly economically disadvantaged, Hispanic and African-American 11th-grade students. Findings revealed strong support for the role of a deviant lifestyle for all three criterion measures, whereas support for the role of a pro-social lifestyle was weaker. Support for the applicability of the general theory of crime to all three criterion measures was more mixed compared to lifestyle theory because findings revealed high specificity in variable associations for individual components of self-control.

Authors

• Saira S Rab, University of Houston

• Margit Wiesner, University of Houston