[Antecedent factors of junior high school students' mild delinquency: longitudinal study from the first through the...

This study examined the characteristics typically seen before the start of delinquency. Questionnaire surveys were administered twice to 1 524 junior high school students, in the first and again in the second school term. Students were classified into three groups according to the time when they started engaging in delinquent behavior: "experienced" (having engaged in delinquency before the first survey: N = 304), "started" (reporting their start of delinquency after the first survey: N = 157), and "no experience" (having no experience of delinquency: N = 1 063). Comparisons of the three groups showed that the "started" group shared the same characteristic factors with the "experienced" group. Compared with the "no experience" group, both delinquency groups reported a less intimate relationship with their parents, more experience of domestic abuse, less parental control, and more conforming behavior with their friends. Also, the "started" group showed a sharp change in their degree of enjoyment of school life. Although the "started" group reported the same level of school life before starting delinquency as the "no experience" group, they reported a lower degree of enjoyment, nearly equal with that of the "experienced" group, after starting delinquency.