Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Social Defeat Stress Model for Adolescent C57BL/6 Male and Female Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Gender similarities and differences in the association between risk and protective factors and self-reported serious
Abigail A Fagan1, M Lee Van Horn, J David Hawkins
1Social Development Research Group, University of Washington, School of Social Work, 9725 3rd Ave. NE, Suite 401, Seattle, WA 98115, USA. fagana@u.washington.edu
Abstract:
Boys consistently report higher rates of serious offending during late adolescence than do girls, yet research is mixed regarding the ways in which males and females may differentially experience risk and protection in their families, schools, peer groups, and as individuals. This article examines gender differences in 22 psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with serious delinquency. Based on self-reported information from 7,829 10th-grade students completing the Communities That Care Youth Survey, all psychosocial factors were significantly related to serious delinquency for both sexes. For 12 of the 22 factors, the strength of the association was significantly greater for males, and, for 18 factors, boys reported higher levels of risk exposure and lower levels of protection than did girls. Together, these findings suggest that boys' greater involvement in serious delinquency is due to the combination of experiencing more risk and less protection than girls and the greater association of these predictors with serious delinquency for boys compared to girls. Implications for prevention programming are discussed.
Related Concept Videos
Conduct Disorder
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Bullying
Self-Discrepancy and Its Effects
Sources of Self-Esteem I: Family Experience
Ethnic Identity within a Larger Culture