Delinquency and Depression in the Transition to Adulthood: Toward a Theory of Deviant Adolescent Role Exits to Adult Disadvantage

John HaganSES-0001753社会科学家和公众人物经常推测，通常被描述为绝望或抑郁的社会和心理压力是青少年犯罪的主要来源，包括贫民区街道和社区暴力增加，以及郊区特权学校走廊和教室的零星暴力。然而，很少有研究同时考虑青春期的犯罪、暴力和抑郁问题。同样，在衡量青春期和成年早期抑郁情绪的研究中，对年轻的“灰心丧气”的工人失业的猜测也缺乏基础。来自国家青少年健康纵向研究(Add Health)和这项调查的后续第三波调查的数据将被用来测试一个模型，该模型考虑了犯罪和抑郁之间的因果关系，以及它们通过从青春期的问题退出到成年后早期问题的联系。建议的模型颠覆了传统的紧张理论，断言犯罪通过增加接触暴力、适得其反的同伴网络、药物滥用和法律污名化而成为抑郁的因果前置因素。由此产生的抑郁反过来会导致青春期的角色偏离常态，包括辍学、离家出走、青少年怀孕、对自杀的想法和企图，所有这些都会导致不利的成年结果，如失业、无家可归、单亲、发病率和死亡率。ADD健康调查的初步工作侧重于衡量和测试青春期犯罪和抑郁之间的联系，以及暴露在暴力中所起的调解作用。研究结果表明，在从犯罪到抑郁的预测方向上，这种影响比从犯罪到抑郁的预测方向更大，在线性和半对数模型中，权力曲线改善了这些变量之间的关系，暴力暴露在犯罪对抑郁的影响中起到了中介作用。研究计划的第一年是围绕第一波和第二波添加健康数据，扩大个人层面的分析，以包括同伴网络、脱离学校和药物滥用，并推进到考虑邻居、学校、社会网络和聚合的个人层面因素的背景影响的多层面模型。研究计划的第二年侧重于新的2000年第三波调查数据，该数据将提供有关从青春期到成年期过渡的重要信息。到这个时候，大多数受访者的年龄将在18至22岁之间。那些注定要让青春期角色偏离常态的人进入成年期，按照定义这是为时过早的，现在他们已经这样做了。这些人现在将经历成年期的初始阶段，我们的理论预测，许多人将经历由此导致的成年早期劣势，这可以分析为与更早的犯罪和抑郁以及随后的风险和青春期问题退出有关。除了以前的第一波和第二波接触涉及暴力、同伴、学校和物质问题的调解风险的措施外，新的第三波2000年调查将追溯地衡量法律标签和由此造成的污名化的风险。这些项目跟踪受访者与警方和法院的联系。这些接触的潜在耻辱后果将在之前关于随后抑郁、角色退出和成人劣势的犯罪自我报告的基础上进行探索。

John HaganSES-0001753It is common for social scientists and public figures to speculate that feelings of social and psychological strain, usually described as despair or depression, are primary sources of youth crime, including elevated violence in ghetto streets and neighborhoods and sporadic violence in the hallways and classrooms of privileged suburban school. Yet there is little research that simultaneously considers problems of delinquency, violence and depression during adolescence. Speculation about unemployment among young "discouraged" workers similarly lacks a foundation in research that measures depressed feelings during adolescence and early adulthood. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and follow-up third wave of this survey that will be used to test a model that considers the causal relationship between delinquency and depression and their linkage through troubled exits from adolescence to early problems in adulthood. The proposed model reverses conventional strain theory in asserting that delinquency acts as a causal antecedent to depression by increasing exposure to violence, counter-productive peer networks, substance abuse and legal stigmatization. The resulting depression leads in turn to deviant role exits from adolescence, including dropping out of school, running away from home, teen pregnancy, and thoughts about and attempts at suicide, all of which anticipate disadvantaged adult outcomes, such as joblessness, homelessness, single parenthood, morbidity and mortality. Preliminary work with the Add Health Survey has focused on measuring and testing the link between delinquency and depression during adolescence, and on the mediating role played by exposure to violence. Findings indicates that this influence is greater in the predicted direction from delinquency to depression than vice versa, with a power curve improving the fit of the relationship between these variables, and exposure to violence acting to mediate the effect of delinquency on depression in both linear and semi-logarithmic models. The first year of the research plan is built around the Wave I and II Add Health data, expanding the individual level analyses to include peer networks, disengagement from school and substance abuse, and advancing to multi-level model that consider the contextual effects of neighborhood, school, social network and aggregated individual level factors. The second year of the research plan focuses on the new Wave III Survey 2000 data which will provide crucial information about transitions from adolescence into adulthood. Most respondents will by this time be between 18 and 22 years of age. Those who were destined to make deviant adolescent role exits to adulthood, which are by definition premature, will now have done so. These individuals now will be moving though the initial stages of adulthood and our theory predicts that many will be experiencing resulting early adult disadvantages, which can be analyzed in relation to earlier delinquency and depression and ensuing risks and problematic exits from adolescence. In addition to the previous Wave I and II measures of exposure to mediating risks involving violence, peer, school and substance problems, the new Wave III Survey 2000 will retrospectively measure risks of legal labeling and resulting stigmatization. These items track contacts of respondents with the police and courts. The potential stigmatizing consequences of these contacts will be explored net of earlier self-reports of delinquency on subsequent depression, role exits and adult disadvantage.