My Brother’s Keeper: Siblings, Self-Control, and Delinquency

• In Event: Families and Offending

Abstract

The theory of low self-control has been very successful in explaining deviance. Having low self-control is one of the strongest individual predictors for crime and delinquency. However, the effect of an individual’s self-control on those who are close to the individual has not been explored. Individuals in a dyad can influence each other’s cognition, emotions, and behaviors. The purpose of this study is to explore the degree to which an individual’s level of self-control can influence the behavior of their sibling. This study uses data from the longitudinal cohort study of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. This study incorporates an actor-partner interdependence model with sibling dyads, analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling, to determine the degree to which an individual’s self-control influences the delinquency and victimization of their sibling.

Authors

• Daniel N. Acton, University of Florida

• Chris Lee Gibson, University of Florida