Abstract
Recently, researchers have devoted significant attention to the influence of turning points such as marriage, employment, and military service on criminal desistance in adulthood. Because offending peaks in adolescence, the relative lack of research on influential adolescent turning points is notable. Given the extensive research linking school failure to deleterious adult development, we propose that school failure (late grade retention and school dropout) is a marked transition in adolescence, with the potential to operate as a turning point in the life course. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we first examine structural, relational, and individual predictors of school failure in adolescence. Second, we assess whether school failure amplifies delinquency in late adolescence. We find evidence supporting our contention that school failure operates as an adolescent turning point, and we confirm that school failure is significantly predicted by structural, relational, and individual factors. Although school failure may be thought of as the end result of a long-term process of academic disengagement, our research suggests that it is also a pivotal, negative turning point in the life course.
Published Version
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