The Impact of Personal and Anticipated Strain on Impoverished Adolescents

Background: General strain theory (GST) posits that the inability to achieve culturally defined norms and expectations result in strain.  Sometimes, individuals engage in delinquent acts to achieve those expectations which cannot be attained through conventional means. It may also be that the anticipation of strain or the perceived possibility that one may not achieve culturally defined expectations can also lead to strain.  This is known as anticipated strain.   

Agnew (2001) advanced four characteristics of strain that are likely to result in criminal behavior.  This coping hypothesis has been examined in juveniles specifically. For example, delinquency has been found to be a coping response to strain in juvenile populations.  Further evidence has been put forward to indicate that conditions such as exposure to delinquent peers and delinquent beliefs and low socioeconomic status contribute to strain and the development of delinquent behavior in juveniles. 

Although there is theoretical and empirical support for the relationships among delinquent peers, family instability, poverty, strain, and juvenile delinquency, much of the support comes from research that focuses exclusively on general strain.  A coherent body of literature explaining these relationships in the presence of anticipated strain is lacking. 

 

Method: Longitudinal data from the Mobile Youth Survey, a 14-year study of adolescents, was used to explore the effects of personal strain, anticipated strain, and peer influence on delinquent behavior in a sample of Black American adolescent males and females living in extreme poverty.  The sample was fairly evenly split between the two genders, with 47% (n = 643) males and 53% (n = 717) females.  The sample is not ethnically diverse, consisting primarily of Black Americans (96%, n = 1312), with a small percentage of Latino/as (4%, n = 48).  Two linear growth models were estimated.  The dependent variable in both models is delinquency.  The two anticipated strain variables of educational expectations and adult expectations along with the three personal strain variables of negative peer influence, positive peer influence, and school acceptance were all added to the model as time-varying covariates.  Additionally, gender was added to the model as a time-invariant covariate.

 

Results: Personal strain predicted levels of delinquency among both males and females, though levels of delinquency were typically lower among females (γ = -1.53, t (50) = -6.17, p < .001).  Moreover, adult expectations, educational expectations, school acceptance, and positive peer influence were high among females, reducing the likelihood of delinquent behavior.  Anticipated strain increased the likelihood of delinquent behavior across time for all participants.    

 

Implications: The results on anticipated strain advances what is known about the expectation of strain and how that expectation impacts delinquent behavior.  High educational expectations were found to predict low delinquency, as anticipated.  However, adolescents who had very few educational expectations, but began developing these expectations over time, became more delinquent.  This finding suggests that strain, and potential criminal coping, may develop in later adolescence in response to a desire to attend college.