Poster #112 - The Moderating Role of Self-control on the Co-offending and Adolescent Delinquency Link: a Cross-national Study

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

Risk behavior such as delinquency is known to increase during adolescence, particularly in the presence of peers. For example, co-offending is most prevalent during adolescence (Stolzenberg & D’Alessio, 2008). It is unclear, however, whether engaging in co-offending predicts subsequent higher levels of adolescent delinquency, as well as which factors moderate this link (cf. Defoe et al. 2021). The Psychosocial Maturity hypothesis proposes that impulsivity explains the heightened risky behavior (e.g., delinquency) seen in adolescence (Steinberg, 2008). This is further highlighted in the newly developed developmental neuro-ecological risk-taking model (DNERM), that posits that the relation between co-offending and adolescent delinquency would be stronger for youth who have lower self control (e.g., impulsivity). Hence, in the current longitudinal study, we aim to investigate whether impulsivity moderates the link between co-offending and adolescent delinquency. Data was collected using a self-report questionnaire over two waves, each one year apart. The sample is from the Dutch Caribbean country of Sint Maarten (N = 350 at baseline, age range: 11-19 years.,) and the Netherlands (N = 602 at baseline, age range: 12-17 years). This study is unique in that it will be among the few studies with a longitudinal design that investigates co-offending, and it is one of the few cross-national longitudinal studies. The results showed some support for both of our theoretical frameworks. In the Netherlands, impulsivity moderated the significant relation between co-offending and future delinquency (consistent with DNERM). However, on Sint Maarten, while co-offending significantly predicted delinquency (consistent with DNERM), this relation was not moderated by impulsivity. Additionally, impulsivity independently predicted delinquency for youth in the Netherlands (consistent with the psychosocial maturity hypothesis), but not on Sint Maarten. The sample from Sint Maarten was mostly of non-Western ethnicities, while the majority of the sample from the Netherlands identified as Dutch. These differing results demonstrate that caution must be taken when generalizing results and theories across countries and cultures, especially considering that the overwhelming majority of psychological and criminological research is done on Western populations. Overall, results from this study have potentially interesting implications for the development of more effective delinquency prevention and intervention systems within adolescents’ immediate community.

Keywords: Delinquency; Youth; Co-offending; Impulsivity; Self-control; Cross-national differences

Authors

• Ivy Natasha Defoe, University of Amsterdam

• Antonina Yakobson, McGill University
  Presenting Author