Family Economic Hardship and Trajectories of Aggression in Childhood: Implications for Early Onset Delinquency

• In Event: Revisiting the Critical Role of Childhood Factors in Predicting Later Life Outcomes I

Abstract

The putative role of family socioeconomic disadvantage in the etiology of delinquency has been intensely debated and even rejected, yet it remains central to many sociological perspectives including life course models. Drawing on a sample of males from the 3, 5, and 9 year follow-ups of the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (n = 1,076), we go beyond prior research on the social class-crime relationship by investigating whether persistent family economic hardship (relative to other patterns) predicts distinct patterns of aggression during the critical developmental period of early childhood. We then examine whether patterns of hardship and aggression over time predict self-reported delinquency at age 9. Results show that persistent economic hardship multiplies the relative risk of a “high” aggression trajectory during childhood by more than 8 times and that both hardship and aggression in turn strongly predict delinquency net of explanations such as low verbal ability and low self-control. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Authors

• Thomas L. McNulty, University of Georgia

• Paul E. Bellair, The Ohio State University

• Vincent J. Roscigno, The Ohio State University

• Man (Karlo) Kit Lei, University of Georgia