Youth with Co-Occurring Delinquency and Depression: Do They Have Worse Delinquent Outcomes?

• In Event: Children/Youth, Trauma, Mental Health and Delinquency or Justice Issues

Abstract

Depression and delinquency frequently co-occur, but the consequences of this co-occurrence for criminogenic processes and outcomes remain unclear. Depressive symptoms could worsen delinquent outcomes by increasing internal strain or affiliation with delinquent peers; alternatively, they could inhibit behavior and peer interactions to the point where they have a protective effect. This study tested whether co-occurring delinquency-depression worsens or improves future delinquency, rates of police contact, and substance use, and, if so, whether it does so as theorized through its positive or negative association with delinquent peer affiliations. We used four waves of panel data from PROSPER, which collected survey and social network data from a sample of adolescents followed across high school (N=8,701). We used latent class analysis to identify profiles of delinquency and depressive symptoms at 9th grade, and then related those profiles to subsequent peer affiliations and delinquency using random effects models. The results show that co-occurring delinquency-depression predicts less future affiliation with deviant peers among delinquent youth, but it does not consistently predict more or less future involvement in deviance.

Authors

• Sonja E. Siennick, Florida State University

• Alex O. Widdowson, Florida State University