Citation

Mowen TJ, Boman JH. J. Youth Adolesc. 2018; 47(2): 275-289.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, 232 Williams Hall, BGSU, Bowling Green, OH, 43403, USA. jboman@bgsu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10964-017-0794-1

PMID

29275434

Abstract

Despite the uniqueness of an incarceration experience for adolescents, there remains a shortage of research on adolescents and emerging adults who have been recently released from detention centers and are returning home during the transitional time period of "reentry". Drawing from the developmental literature, the current study uses a diverse (54% Black, 20% White, 26% Other Race) longitudinal survey of 337 male adolescents living in the United States to examine the interrelationships among crime, substance use, family conflict, and peer delinquency. A series of cross-lagged dynamic panel data models using four waves of data demonstrate that while family conflict and peer delinquency relate to increased offending and substance use, conflict in the family is a major driving force behind both future family conflict and peer delinquency. Overall, findings suggest that family conflict is an overlooked, but absolutely critical, factor in explaining deviance and deviant peer associations alike for adolescents and emerging adults who have been recently incarcerated and released.

Language: en

Keywords

Differential association; Family conflict; Longitudinal modeling; Peer delinquency; Youth reentry