General strain theory, key strains, and deviance

Abstract

The current study, using a sample of 294 university students, examined the effects of key strains, negative emotions, and conditioning factors on various types of deviance. Eight key strains most likely to lead to deviance, but largely ignored in the previous research on the general strain theory (GST), such as teachers' emotional punishment and race/gender discrimination, were measured. Overall, the findings indicated that teachers' emotional punishment and race discrimination were significantly related to deviance, consistent with GST's prediction. Students who were emotionally punished by teachers and/or were racially discriminated against were more likely to engage in deviance. The findings, however, showed that anger had no significant mediating effect linking strains to deviance and that interaction factors between strain and conditioning variables had limited effects on deviance.