LD and delinquency: Rethinking the "link"

Longitudinal data from a 7-year prospective study was examined to investiga te whether the presence of learning disabilities (LD) increases a youth's r isk of becoming a juvenile delinquent. The sample included 515 students enr olled in the fifth grade in the fall of 1985, 51 (9.9%) of whom were youth with LD. Self-report data on delinquent activity were collected in the spri ng of 1993. Official court records were obtained for the years 1985 through 1992. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed using a blo ck of three demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic sta tus) as predictors in the first step and including LD status in a second st ep. Seven separate analyses were performed, using different measures of del inquency as criterion variables. In no case did LD status account for a sig nificant portion of unique variance in the delinquency variables when the d emographic variables were controlled for. The results of this study did not confirm the presence of a direct relationship between LD and delinquency a nd suggest that the finding of a direct relationship in other studies may h ave been due to confounding of the LD status with age, ethnicity, or socioe conomic status.