Suchergebnisse

El estudio empírico de la actividad delictiva y de su evolución a lo largo del tiempo ha sido un tema nuclear en la Criminología científica. Empezando por el trabajo pionero y descriptivo de Quetelet (1842), continuando por el clásico The Jack Roller, de Shaw (1931), y culminando en el estudio emblemático de Wolfgang, Figlio y Sellin (1972), Delinquency in a Birth Cohort, los análisis descriptivos y más básicos sobre la conducta criminal han proporcionado información relevante acerca de la proporción de individuos que delinquen la cuantía de sus delitos, las respectivas participaciones según tipologías delictivas, y sobre el desistimiento de la actividad criminal [...]

The social development model seeks to explain human behavior through specification of predictive and mediating developmental relationships. It incorporates the effects of empirical predictors ("risk factors" and "protective factors") for antisocial behavior and seeks to synthesize the most strongly supported propositions of control theory, social learning theory, and differential association theory. This article examines the fit of the social development model using constructs measured at ages 10, 13, 14, and 16 to predict violent behavior at age 18. The sample of 808 is from the longitudinal panel of the Seattle Social Development Project, which in 1985 surveyed fifth‐grade students from schools serving high crime neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to examine the fit of the model to the data. The model fit the data (CFI ≥.90, RMSEA ≤.05). We conclude that the social development model adequately predicts violence at age 18 and mediates much of the effect of prior violence. Implications for theory and for prevention are discussed.

Researchers have examined the predictors of adolescent gang membership, finding significant factors in the neighborhood, family, school, peers, and individual domains. However, little is known about whether risk and protective factors differ in predictive salience at different developmental periods. The present study examines predictors of joining a gang, tests whether these factors have different effects at different ages, and whether they differ by gender using theSeattleSocialDevelopmentProject (SSDP) sample (n = 808). By age 19, 173 participants had joined a gang. Using survival analysis, results showed that unique predictors of gang membership onset included living with a gang member, antisocial neighborhood, and antisocial peer influences in the previous year. No time or gender interactions with predictors were statistically significant.

Risk and protective factors predictive of adolescent problem behaviors such as substance abuse and delinquency are promising targets for preventive intervention. Community planners should assess and target risk and protective factors when designing prevention programs. This study describes the development, reliability, and validity of a self-report survey instrument for adolescents ages 11 to 18 that measures an array of risk and protective factors across multiple ecological domains as well as adolescent problem behaviors. The instrument can be used to assess the epidemiology of risk and protection in youth populations and to prioritize specific risk and protective factors in specific populations as targets for preventive intervention.

The social development model is a general theory of human behavior that seeks to explain antisocial behaviors through specification of predictive developmental relationships. It incorporates the effects of empirical predictors ("risk factors" and "protective factors") for antisocial behavior and attempts to synthesize the most strongly supported propositions of control theory, social learning theory, and differential association theory. This article examines the power of social development model constructs measured at ages 9 to 10 and 13 to 14 to predict drug use at ages 17 to 18. The sample of 590 is from the longitudinal panel of the Seattle Social Development Project, which in 1985 sampled fifth grade students from high crime neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to examine the fit of the model to the data. Although all but one path coefficient were significant and in the expected direction, the model did not fit the data as well as expected (CF1=.87). We next specified second-order factors for each path to capture the substantial common variance in the constructs' opportunities, involvement, and rewards. This model fit the data well (CFI=.90). We conclude that the social development model provides an acceptable fit to predict drug use at ages 17 to 18. Implications for the temporal nature of key constructs and for prevention are discussed.

This article summarizes a much lengthier one that appeared in Prevention and Treatment. The earlier article grew out of a project initiated by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The Positive Youth Development Evaluation project described why policy makers, practitioners, and prevention scientists advocated a shift in approach for how youth issues are addressed in this country. The Positive Youth Development Evaluation project sought to define how youth development programs have been defined in the literature and then to locate, through a structured search, strong evaluations of these programs and summarize the outcomes of these evaluations. In the current article, we explain why prevention has shifted from a single problem focus to a focus on factors that affect both positive and problem youth development, describe what is meant by positive youth development, and summarize what we know about the effectiveness of positive youth development programs.

Both being involved in a gang and having friends who are delinquent have been shown to contribute to an individual's own delinquency. However, the unique contribution of gang membership to delinquency, above and beyond having delinquent peers, has not been well studied. Increased delinquency among gang members may not be due to gang membership per se, but to the members' association with delinquent peers. Using data from the Seattle Social Development Project, this research compared involvement in delinquency for gang members, nongang youths with delinquent friends, and nongang youths who did not have delinquent friends. MANOVA and follow‐up ANOVA were conducted to determine differences on measures of delinquency among the three groups at ages 14 and 15. Gang members were found to have a higher rate of offending in the past year when compared with the other groups. The contribution of gang membership to delinquency above and beyond having delinquent friends was also examined using structural equation modeling. Gang membership was found to independently predict both self‐reported and officially recorded delinquency beyond the effects of having delinquent friends and prior delinquency. Implications of the results for delinquency prevention and intervention efforts are discussed.

Preparing for the Drug Free Years (PDFY) is a preventive intervention that targets parenting behaviors, family interaction patterns, and adolescent substance use, factors that have been shown to predict depression among teenagers. Effects of PDFY on trajectories of self‐reported adolescent depressive symptoms from 6th through 12th grade were examined. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze data from 429 rural adolescents from schools assigned randomly to an intervention or a control condition. PDFY reduced the rate of increase in depressive symptoms during adolescence. Mediation of the intervention effect on depressive symptoms through reduced polysubstance use was tested; the indirect effect was only marginally significant. Findings have implications for understanding the relationship between adolescent depressive symptoms and substance use, and for preventing these outcomes.