Social Class, Family Formation, and Delinquency in Early Adulthood

Recent research suggests increasing heterogeneity in the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. This study considers how this heterogeneity may influence delinquency between these two developmental periods. We focus on the role of family transitions, educational attainment, and employment i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSociological perspectives Vol. 59; no. 2; pp. 345 - 367
Main Authors Kuhl, Danielle C., Chavez, Jorge M., Swisher, Raymond R., Wilczak, Andrew
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2016
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Adolescence
Adolescents
Adulthood
Behavior problems
Children
Cohabitation
Criminality
Criminology
Drug use
Educational attainment
Employment
Family roles
Health
Heterogeneity
Juvenile delinquency
Level of education
Life transitions
Marijuana
Marijuana use
Marriage
Neighborhoods
Parents & parenting
Race & Class Inequalities
Risk
Risk assessment
Social classes
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Substance abuse
Teenagers
substance use
delinquency
socioeconomic status
early adulthood
family transitions
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Summary:Recent research suggests increasing heterogeneity in the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. This study considers how this heterogeneity may influence delinquency between these two developmental periods. We focus on the role of family transitions, educational attainment, and employment in predicting risk of nonviolent delinquency and substance use, as well as disparities in transitions across socioeconomic status subgroups. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). We find that family and neighborhood advantage are negatively associated with transitions into marriage, cohabitation, and parenthood, yet positively associated with educational attainment. In addition, adolescent family and neighborhood advantage are associated with a continuation of delinquent behavior and substance use during early adulthood. In multivariate analyses, accounting for family transitions in early adulthood largely attenuates the relationship between neighborhood advantage in adolescence and delinquency in early adulthood. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for developmental criminology.
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ISSN:0731-1214
1533-8673
DOI:10.1177/0731121415586635