Strain, anger, and delinquent adaptations - Specifying general strain theory

Agnew's general strain theory has been one of the more significant developm ents in theoretical criminology over the past decade. To extend the emergin g empirical literature assessing this perspective, the current study pre se nted original data collected from a sample of high school-aged youths in th e 1990s, included a measure of anger that a number of previous tests overlo oked, and examined a number of different delinquent adaptations to strain. The analysis focused directly on the relationships between exposure to stra in, anger, and delinquent behavior. An examination was conducted into wheth er strain has direct or indirect effects, through the mediating effects of anger, on three types of delinquent outcomes: violence, drug use, and schoo l-related deviance. The findings reveal that strain has direct (i.e., indep endent) effects on violence even after controlling for other influences, bu t exposure to strain is not related to illicit drug use or school-related d eviance independently. The results reveal that the criminogenic effects of strain on drug use are conditional on weak social bonds and exposure to dev iant affiliations. In addition, the results reveal that anger does not medi ate the effects of strain on delinquent outcomes. The results for models pr edicting violence reveal that the criminogenic effects of anger operate thr ough strain. The results are consistent with the view that youth with high levels of anger disproportionately experience and/or perceive strainful cir cumstances or events that can lead to violence. Explanations on why strain and anger appear to have differential effects on varied delinquent outcomes were offered. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.