Social-Environmental Influences on Self-Regulation Among Male and Female Juvenile Offenders

Background and Purpose: Deficits in self-regulation development are strong predictors of adolescent delinquency (Röll, Koglin & Petermann, 2012) and research on development is emerging as a significant matter among youth offenders (Mulvey, 2014).  Currently, research in the social-environmental impacts on self-regulation among youth delinquency lacks knowledge on gender-specific influences.  The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of social-environmental risk factors—with particular attention to family, peer and community level factors—on self-regulation among male and female juvenile offenders.

Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis of data gathered from the Pathways to Desistance study (see Mulvey 2004).  This original study was a seven-year longitudinal, multi-site, survey based study with serious adolescent offenders age 14 years to 18 years old at the time of their criminal offense. The current study is a cross-sectional study of survey data gathered at the baseline measurement point. Enrollment for the Pathways study occurred from November 2000 until January 2003. Pathways used a convenience sampling design by reviewing court files of 10,461 youth in the juvenile justice system in Phoenix, Arizona and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Adolescents participated in computerized surveys in face-to-face interviews. There were a total of 1,354 participants: 1,170 males and 184 females. The racial/ethnic composition of the participants was 20.2% White, 41.4% Black, 33.5% Hispanic, and 4.8% Other. Self-report measures of social-environmental risk factors were utilized. Family level factors included parental hostility and family structure, peer level factors consisted of peer offending and gang involvement, and community factors were assessed by exposure to community violence and neighborhood conditions. To assess self-regulation, two standardized self-report measures were utilized: Children’s Emotion Regulation Scale (Walden, Harris, & Catron, 1995) and Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (WAI; Weinberger & Schwartz, 1990). Three subscales of the WAI were used in the current study (impulse control, suppression of aggression and temperance). A series of multiple linear regression analyses was conducted. The regression models were tested with each male and female sample separately.

Results: Overall, the results supported the hypothesis that social-environmental risk factors negatively affect self-regulation. In particular, parental hostility, a family level factor, was found to have negative impacts on self-regulation among both male and female youth offenders. Regarding peer level risk factors, both gang involvement and peer offending were significant predictors of self-regulation for male offenders, while only gang involvement was significant in predicting self-regulation of female offenders. Community level factors were a major predictor of male participant’s self-regulation, significantly influencing all four self-regulation outcomes. None of the community level factors, however, appeared to impact self-regulation among female participants.

Implications: The findings suggest that future research on serious adolescent offenders may benefit from identifying gender-specific social-environmental influences on self-regulatory development. The findings of the study shed light on the importance of addressing gender-specific prevention efforts on delinquent behavior coupled with interventions that incorporate self-regulatory capacity building.