HARTMAN, JENNIFER L.
TURNER, MICHAEL G.
DAIGLE, LEAH E.
EXUM, M. LYN
CULLEN, FRANCIS T.
Exploring the Gender Differences in Protective Factors
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 52,3 (June 2009): 249-277
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
ID Number: 6123
Publisher: Sage Publications

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Understanding the causes of why individuals desist from or are resilient to delinquency and drug use has become a salient social concern. Much research has centered on the effects that protective factors possess in fostering resiliency but that research has not fully explored how the effects of protective factors might vary across gender. Using a sample of 711 individuals from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child-Mother data set, the authors investigate how individual protective factors vary across gender on two measures of resiliency that document the lack of involvement in serious delinquency and drug use. They also examine whether the accumulation of protective factors varies across gender in fostering resiliency. The findings suggest that although males and females rely on different individual protective factors to foster resiliency, the accumulation of protective factors appears to be equally important for males and females in promoting resiliency. The authors discuss theoretical and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PIQUERO, ALEX R.
BREZINA, TIMOTHY
TURNER, MICHAEL G.
Testing Moffitt's Account of Delinquency Abstention
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 42,1 (February 2005): 27-55
Cohort(s): NLSY97
ID Number: 4822
Publisher: Sage Publications

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

An established finding in criminology is that most adolescents engage in delinquency. Still, studies continue to identify a small group of individuals who refrain from delinquency even when it is nonnative for their same-age peers. Moffitt's developmental taxonomy provides some reasons for delinquency abstention, but research has been slow to assess these hypotheses. Herein, the authors use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to examine one of Moffitt's unexplored abstention hypotheses: that some individuals abstain because individual characteristics block their access to delinquent peer networks and, hence, opportunities to mimic antisocial behavior In addition, the authors also present the first empirical examination of gender differences in abstention. The results support some aspects of Moffitt's hypotheses concerning the importance of peer networks, but provide mixed evidence regarding the personal characteristics associated with delinquency abstention and involvement in deviant peer networks. Directions for future research and theorizing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRATT, TRAVIS C.
TURNER, MICHAEL G.
PIQUERO, ALEX R.
Parental Socialization and Community Context: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Structural Sources of Low Self-Control
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 41,3 (August 2004): 219-244. Also: http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=14012333&db=aph
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
ID Number: 4587
Publisher: Sage Publications

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Several empirical studies have attempted to estimate the effect of low self-control on criminal and "analogous" behaviors. Most of these studies have shown that low self-control is an important feature of the cause(s) of crime. Although research is begining to emerge that targets more specifically the "roots" of self-control via parental socialization (the most salient factor in the development of self-control according to Hirschi and Gottfredson), researchers have yet to explore the degree to which the structural characteristics of communities may influence patterns of parental socialization and, in turn, individual levels of self-control. To address this question, the authors employ longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to examine community-level influences on parental socialization and self-control. The results indicate (1) self-control was predicted both cross-sectionally and longitudinally by both parental socialization and adverse neighborhood conditions, (2) the total effect of adverse neighborhood conditions on children's levels of self-control was just as strong as the total effect for indicators of parental socialization, and (3) important race differences did emerge, particularly with regard to the interrelationships between our neighborhood-level measures and parental socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TURNER, MICHAEL G.
Good Kids in Bad Circumstances: A Longitudinal Analysis of Resilient Youth
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2000
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
ID Number: 3678
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

A central concern of the life-course perspective has been to demarcate the factors-often called "risk factors"--that place an individual at risk for criminal activity at various points of development. This perspective, however, has resulted in only limited investigation of the factors--often called "Protective factors"--that prevent an individual from becoming involved in these problem behaviors. It is noteworthy that researchers have infrequently investigated the effects that protective factors have on high-risk youths (e.g., individuals exposed to multiple criminogenic risks as opposed to an isolated risk). This research, commonly referred to resiliency research, has generally found that protective factors emerging over the life course from many different domains play an integral role in insulating or buffering youths from the effects of multiple risk factors. The existing research on resiliency, however, has been limited by one or more considerations: the use of cross-sectional research designs; approaching research hypotheses in an atheoretical manner; relying on small samples that are not nationally representative; and generally focusing on a narrow period of the life course. The intent of this dissertation is to overcome these limitations and extend the knowledge base on resiliency by using a sample of 711 individuals from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child-Mother data set. Using multiple analytic strategies, the findings suggest that protective factors only have trivial independent effects, however, their cumulative effects are significant and robust across multiple measures of resiliency. In addition, these findings appeared to be general across categories of race and sex. The evidence did not suggest that protective factors also functioned to moderate the effects of risk. Finally, contrary to much prior research, those identified as resilient did not experience greater levels of depression. The theoretical and policy implications of this r esearch are discussed.

TURNER, MICHAEL G.
HARTMAN, JENNIFER L.
BISHOP, DONNA M.
Effects of Prenatal Problems, Family Functioning, and Neighborhood Disadvantage in Predicting Life-Course-Persistent Offending
Criminal Justice and Behavior 34,10 (2007): 1241-1261
Cohort(s): NLSY79
ID Number: 5784
Publisher: Sage Publications

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research examining Moffitt's dual taxonomy theory of offending has generally supported the idea that neuropsychological deficits interact with disadvantaged familial environments to predict life-course-persistent offending. Most research, however, has neglected to investigate the power of this interaction across different neighborhood and racial contexts. Using data extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Moffitt's biosocial hypothesis is tested across different neighborhood and racial contexts. The findings indicate that the biosocial interaction predicts life-course-persistent offending only among non-Whites in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Stated differently, macro-level structural factors appear to moderate the effects of individual and family risks. That poor non-Whites reside in neighborhoods that are ecologically distinct from those in which poor Whites reside exacerbates the criminogenic effects of individual-level deficits and family disadvantage.

TURNER, MICHAEL G.
PIQUERO, ALEX R.
PRATT, TRAVIS C.
School Context as a Source of Self-Control
Journal of Criminal Justice 33,4 (July-May 2005): 327-339
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
ID Number: 5121
Publisher: Elsevier

Researchers investigating Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime primarily concentrated their efforts on the relationship between an individual's self-control and involvement in crime and/or analogous behaviors. Much less research examined the potential sources of an individual's self-control. In this study, an argument was developed for the importance of exploring the contribution of the school context in the development of self-control within individuals. In particular, Gottfredson and Hirschi's position on this front was theoretically elaborated by including school/teacher socialization practices in a larger model of the development of self-control. Using data extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, it was found that the effects of school socialization on self-control were significant net of parental socialization. In addition, the effects of school socialization varied across parenting and neighborhood contexts. The theoretical implications of this research, specifically as they relate to the development of self-control, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR; Copyright 2005 Elsevier] The development of self-control, or the ability to manage one's behavior to comply with normative behavioral expectations, is generally recognized as a significant factor in preventing antisocial behavior and crime. Although extensive research has focused on the link between an individual's self-control and involvement in crime and/or problem behaviors, much less research has identified and examined the potential sources of an individual's self-control. The current study considers the school context as a potential resource for the development of self-control. One source of data was the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which was a multistage, stratified cluster sample of 12,686 individuals between the ages of 14 and 21 in 1979. Since 1979, yearly interviews have been conducted with the sample to examine experiences when the youths completed high school and entered the workforce. The second source of data was the NLSY Child-Mother, which was a separate biennial data collection that began in 1986. It included detailed assessments of each child born to the females in the original NLSY data cohort. The two surveys provided information on the following variables related to the cultivation of self-control: poor parental supervision, parental discipline, neighborhood socialization, and school socialization. The behavioral measures of self-control were based on an individual's total score on portions of the Behavioral Problem Index measured when individuals were age 10. The study found that although school socialization was a significant contributor to self-control in less disadvantaged neighborhoods, it failed to enhance self-control in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. [NCJRS]

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