Growing up and the bonds of social control: longitudinal test of Hirschi's social control theory

Date

1989-12

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

The majority of research shows a negative relationship between elements of the social bond and delinquency. Most of this research has assumed a recursive, cross-sectional model and attributed this relationship to either the direct or indirect effects of elements of the social bond on delinquency. However, some of the more recent research findings suggest that crosssectional analysis is not adequate to access social control theory and cast the assurtption of recursiveness into doubt. Therefore, a reciprocal causal model is proposed which includes social class and ability as background variables, and allows elements of the social bond and delinquency affect one another so that belief is affected by attachment and commitment, and commitment is affected by attachment.

Description

Citation