Patterned Adolescent Socially Deviant Behavior

Abstract

Based on Moffit’s theory of Adolescence-Limited and Life-Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior originally posited in 1993, the purpose of this study is to better understand how adolescent youth (AY) participation in socially deviant behavior (SDB) changes by severity across the adolescent development period. Using data from Waves 1–7 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, a series of latent transition analyses using twelve indicators measured at four timepoints were used for this study. The analytic sample (n = 3578) only included participants who were aged 12 & 13 in 1997 for the purpose of capturing the entire adolescent developmental period (ages 12–19 years old). Four latent statuses were identified in this study: Minimal SDB, Primarily Status Offense SDB, Moderate SDB, and Severe SBD. AY were most likely to remain within a given status between measurements except for Moderate SDB members. Transitions to more harmful statuses were most likely to occur from Moderate SDB to Severe SDB statuses. Overall, youth were most likely to transition to less harmful statuses. Membership of Moderate SDB declined continually across adolescence, while membership to Status Offense SDB continually increased across adolescence. Results suggest that most AY participate in some form of SDB while also changing their participation in SDB by type and severity throughout adolescence. When considering harm to self, others and communities, AY were most likely to participate in SDB that victimized others during early adolescence and the least likely by late adolescence.