Explaining the Link Between Boys’ Early Puberty and Delinquency: A Test of Three Competing Mechanisms

• In Event: Biosocial Development and Offending

Abstract

Recent research indicates early pubertal timing may be a substantial risk factor for delinquent behavior. While theoretical mechanisms linking pubertal timing and delinquency have been well elaborated for girls, the mechanism(s) linking early puberty with delinquency for boys is less clear. In their initial study of this phenomenon, Felson and Haynie (2002) found that earlier puberty was paradoxically related to higher self-esteem, lower depression, and fewer dominance-related behaviors. The current study helps elucidate these links by testing the proposed mechanisms from three theoretical perspectives: the context of risk hypotheses (CR, Haynie, 2003), adolescent-limited hypothesis (AL, Moffit, 1993), and life history theory (LHT, Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper, 1991). The CR and AL hypotheses may be more familiar to criminologists, suggesting shifting social relations or age-maturity mismatch related to early puberty will cause delinquency. LHT suggests that reproductive pressure will cause people to develop more quickly or slowly (indicated by pubertal timing) depending on environmental harshness and unpredictability. Accelerated development will be related to a suite of hostile, present oriented behaviors as part of an underlying reproductive strategy. Using SEM, competing mediators are employed to assess the relative strength of each of these perspectives. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.

Authors

• Eric T. Klopack, University of Georgia

• Ronald L Simons, University of Georgia