Sex effects in risk predictors for antisocial behaviour: are males exposed to more risk factors for antisocial behaviour?

Abstract

Chapter 8 showed that the risk factors for antisocial behaviour are more similar than different for the two sexes. Moreover, with a few exceptions – albeit consistent and theoretically interesting ones – males and females were equally vulnerable to the same risk factors. In this chapter we evaluate a different hypothesis: that males and females are differentially exposed to risk factors for antisocial behaviour and that these sex differences in exposure to risk account for sex differences in antisocial behaviour. According to this possibility, the risk factors for antisocial behaviour are the same in males and females, but males may be more antisocial than females because there is a sex difference in the level of the risk factors among males versus females. To test this hypothesis we will first test if there are sex differences in the levels of each of the risk factors for antisocial behaviour and we will then evaluate if these sex differences in risk exposure can account for sex differences in antisocial behaviour. Our approach follows that devised by Rowe, Vazsonyi, and Flannery (1994, 1995). The basic idea is to determine whether differences in levels of risk factors for antisocial behaviour account for sex differences in antisocial behaviour. In a cross-sectional sample of 800 adolescents, Rowe and his colleagues found similar correlations in the two sexes between a host of risk factors and self-reported delinquency.