Facilitating Maturation Through Social Bonds Among Delinquent Youth in the Transition to Adulthood

Abstract

Maturation has recently been revived as a relevant, and complex, integrated theoretical concept with empirical support, particularly among offender populations. The theoretical concept evolved from an abstract, age-associated term, to a series of specific domains, including psychosocial, adult role, identity, civic, and cognitive processes. While existing research has empirically supported the interrelated nature of these domains, questions remain over whether these internal processes may be externally influenced, particularly among offenders. The current study uses the longitudinal Pathways to Desistance Study to test whether specific social bonding experiences, relating to family socialization processes and social bonds within the community, facilitate maturational growth within specific domains of the integrated maturation theory. Supplemental analyses focus on age-specific considerations of social and maturational change. The current study identifies significant within-individual variation in adult role maturation through family social processes. Findings also show consistent between-individual influences of positive family bonding stimulating domains of maturation. Social bonds with other adult figures provide no support for maturational growth. Maturational growth not only involves distinct domains influencing each other, as individuals age, but is also impacted by positive familial bonds among individuals with significant offense histories, in both adolescence and early adulthood.