Explaining the gender difference in adolescent delinquent behavior: A longitudinal test of mediating mechanisms

The extent to which mediating mechanisms account for the gender difference in delinquency was tested on a sample of 2,753 adolescents studied across t hree points in time. Results using structural equations modeling showed tha t males are more likely to be involved in delinquent activities, partly bec ause they are less bound to conventional values, more likely to be associat ed with delinquent peers, and report more adverse experiences with the auth orities. These effects remain after partialling out the stability effect of prior delinquency and other sociodemographic/structural variables. However , although males are more likely than females to report frustration in achi evement, frustration in achievement does not directly affect subsequent del inquent behavior in a multivariate context. In addition, adolescent males a nd females tend to report similar patterns of delinquent activities, and th e influences of mediating variables on delinquent outcome are generally sim ilar for males and females.