School Strain Measurement, Subjective Meaning, and Offending Trajectories: Does Mattering Matter?

• In Event: Implications of General Strain Theory for Delinquency

Abstract

Motivated by General Strain Theory (GST), the project examines school strains and their effects on offending from adolescence to young adulthood. The project develops an extensive GST model, testing multiple measures of school strain (controlling for strains from multiple domains), coping mechanisms, and negative emotionality. I expand the traditional GST framework to account for the individual context in which the strain is experienced by adding measures of subjective meaning to the interpretation of strain, drawing on psychological theories and Agnew’s (1992) suggestions regarding the perception of strain. Using three waves of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), I estimate relationships between school strain and offending over time with linear mixed-effects modeling. Findings revealed that while some school strains were positively related to offending trajectories, the subjective meaning of those strains made a significant difference in their consequences, either increasing or decreasing levels of offending, even when controlling for multiple forms of strain.

Author

• Janelle Hawes, University of Washington Tacoma