Influence of Childhood Adversity on Students’ Delinquent Activities: Interplay with Neighborhood Context and Delinquent Peer Association

Abstract

Juvenile delinquency is often linked with various proximal family and environmental factors during a child’s upbringing. Richard Jessor’s problem behavior theory (PBT) emphasizes that a combined interplay of these factors may explain this phenomenon appropriately. This study employed the PBT framework to investigate the impact of family on students’ delinquency, considering the influence of neighborhood and delinquent peer association. A model was developed for analyzing the variables by structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were collected through interviews with 1026 students aged between 12 and 18 years from a child development center and eight educational institutes in Bangladesh. The findings revealed that family-level factors (adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and family deprivation) can significantly predict students’ delinquency directly and through the moderation effect of neighborhood-level variables (neighborhood social capital and neighborhood disorganization). Delinquent peer association exhibited a significant mediating role in the model. It could directly predict delinquency as well. The research has notable theoretical and practical implications for understanding the complex dynamics of family, neighborhood, and delinquent peer association in explaining students’ delinquency.