School performance, IQ and female delinquency

The present study explores the extent to which early school failure may be related causally to female delinquency. Parental interview and school record data were collected on 59 girls (and their families) placed on probation. The results suggest that in a relatively poor urban environment school failure does not play an important etiologic role in female delinquency but rather both the school failure and the delinquency arise from common or co-existing adverse family influences.