Testing an Integrated Model of Delinquency Using LISREL

AbstractThis study of 1,093 public high school students was designed to test an integrated theoretical model of delinquency, consisting of elements of social control and differential association theories, with LISREL procedures. The model confirmed wilh LISREL was very similar to the hypothesized model. The hypothesized model was fitted to data in one random sample taken from the original sample, and then confirmed in a separate random sample of respondents. The confirmed model showed a co-variant relationship between attachment to parents and religion, and each of these elements of bonding had a positive relationship to conventional beliefs. Conventional beliefs had an inverse relationship to differential association with delinquent peers, as well as to frequency of delinquent behavior. Modeling peer delinquent behavior increased delinquency, as did excuses for crime, and these excuses had a reciprocal relationship wilh perception of the rewards of delinquency. Theoretical and practice implications of the study were discussed.