A biosocial interaction in predicting early onset of offending

Research has shown several factors increase the likelihood of early onset o f offending; however, interactions among prenatal risk factors and sociolog ical factors in predicting early onset have been a neglected area of resear ch. The purpose of this study was to test the interactive effect of materia l cigarette smoking during pregnancy and the absence of the father from the household in predicting early onset of offending. The longitudinal data ut ilized for this study of 215 inner-city, African-American youth offenders w ere taken from the Philadelphia portion of the Collaborative Perinatal Proj ect. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the combined effect of m aternal cigarette smoking and absence of father from the household had a si gnificant influence in predicting early onset of offending beyond the direc t effects of the independent Variables while controlling for sex of youth.