Stressful life change and delinquent behavior

The study examined life change in relation to self-reported involvement in five specific types of crime and delinquency among members of a noninstitutionalized sample. A group of 531 in-school youths, age 14 to 19, were asked to report how frequently in the 6 months since school started they had performed each of 26 criminal or delinquent acts and how many of 20 potentially stressful life events they had experienced in the year preceding the start of school. Regression analyses showed that, for both males and females, life change added significantly to age and SES in predicting violence, theft, drug use, property damage, and a group of relatively nonserious delinquent acts. On the basis of social psychological theory and research, possible explanatory mechanisms in the link between life stress and specific forms of crime and delinquency are discussed as part of a proposed life stress-deviance model.