Conduct disorder is a ?persistent pattern of conduct in which the basic rights of others and major age-appropriate social norms or rules are violated? (Baum, 1989). Aggression is not usually observed until a child is two years old (Loeber, 1990). This behavior occurs at home, school, and in the community. Aggression is the primary factor of conduct disorder. It is also a significant predictor of delinquency and of adult criminal activity.
According to Patterson (1982), a child’s behavior leads to predictable reactions to their environment. The pattern of these reactions may indicate long term social maladjustment and criminal behavior (Patterson, Debarshe, & Ramsy., 1989). Studies concluded that negative behavior continues over a long period, not only between early aggression and later aggression but also in other patterns of conduct disorder; such as early aggression and later theft. While the pattern is not the same for all individuals (Loeber,1990), it is shown in studies done by Rutter (1978), and Newcomb, Maddahian, and Bentler (1986) that risk factors such as aggression, theft, and academic problems later indicate a child’s tendency of antisocial behavior. The effects will increase when two risk factors interact, for example, the combination of aggression and theft. An aggressive individual will force others to do what he/she wishes done. This behavior, being aggressive, will lead to stealing. This shows that risk factors occurring concurrently will increase the possibility of deviant behavior.
Aggression is one of the primary risk factors of delinquency. Aggression is among the strongest predictors of delinquency (Loeber, 1990). It is defined as an act that injures or irritates another person, not including self-hurt (so it would be measurable). This definition has proved effective in related studies with children (Eyberg, 1998). Studies done by Loeber and Stroutmer-Loeber (1987) concluded that 70% to 90% of violent offenders has been highly aggressive when they were young.
One interpretation drawn from this research is that poor bonding implies a failure to identify parental and societal values. The correlation shows that children, who do not develop a bond with the attachment figure, are most likely to become aggressive and tend to be involve in deviant behavior that would later lead to delinquent acts.
The sociological and psychological theories give a thorough background support of the idea that attachment and aggression contributes to delinquency. The theories explain the great impacts of family and other social factor influence; effects
such as how children are discipline, family interactions (kind of relationship and how well they bond with one another), and behaviors that are seen in and outside of their home. The sociological and psychological theories explained that behavior is learned, and the products of childhood frustrations and unfulfilled needs.
Method
A survey was conducted to measure subjects? degree of attachment to the parents (caregiver), aggression (conduct behavior), and delinquency.
Attachment is measured by nine questions. It consists of three scales of three statements each, with Likert-type responses from ? Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.? The three subscales are availability, anger distress, and goal-corrected partnership.
Attachment is the bond established between a child and the caregiver (parents, older siblings, etc.) in the first years of life. The caregiver should be responsible and be available at most times to the needs of a child (Bowlby, 1973; Evergreen Consultants, 1997). West, Rose, Spreng, Sheldon-Keller, and Adam, (1998) developed the Availability Scale to measure availability and how responsible the attachment figure?s (caregiver) to a child?s needs.
Anger is identified as reaction to frustrations of attachment desires and needs. Bowlby (1973) believes that distress increases bitterness. Consequently, West et al (1998) developed and included in the attachment measurement angry distress to measure negative responses to the attachment figure because of his/her unavailability.
During the attachment developmental stage, a child begins to respond to his/her own goals, whether a child responds to the attachment figures? rules or just ignores it (Maron, 1977 & Bowlby, 1982). Therefore, West et al (1989) develops the goal-corrected partnership to assess a child?s needs and feelings of the attachment figure. Goal-corrected partnership is when the child start to set his/her own goals are rather opposite of their parents.
Availability, anger distress and goal-corrected partnership measurements when summed will determine the subjects? degree of attachment. The higher the attachment score the higher the degree of the subjects’ attachment to his/her parents.
Aggression is measured by sixteen modified questions from the Child Behavior Checklist of a hundred and thirteen questions. The scoring indicates the level of aggressive behavior from passive to normal to a clinical level. The higher the score the more aggressive the behavior.
The delinquency section will contain five questions. These questions serve as indicators of delinquency. The four indicators are arrests, convictions, types of delinquent acts committed and frequency of committing delinquent acts. An arrest indicates if the person was taken into custody. As he/she booked and moved to the detention center or to jail? A conviction indicates if the person was found guilty for violating the law. Was he/she guilty of committing status offenses or criminal offenses? Types of delinquent acts committed vary from breaking and entering to theft, to robbery and so on. Frequency of committing delinquent acts indicates the number of times a person commits a particular delinquent act.
Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationships among the variables, attachment, aggression, and delinquency. There are second-hand factors of delinquency, such as gender and ethnicity. a correlation analysis was also done on these two factors.
One hundred and fifty surveys were distributed to students of these three universities. Seventy-five surveys were returned which represents a fifty percent of the returned rate.
The seventy-five survey returned are respondents from four different schools in Hawaii. Large number of subjects was from Chaminade University representing thirty-three percent of the subjects. Moreover, the least number of subjects were from Hawaii Business College representing sixteen percent of the cases (see figure 1). Of the seventy-five subjects, fifty-six percent were male and forty-four percent were female (see figure 2).
Figure 1: Percentage Distribution by Schools
Figure 2: Percentage Distribution by Gender
Figure 3: Percentage Distribution by Ethnicity
A breakdown on the subjects ethnic groups was also done Asian American is the largest ethnic group represented in the sample, followed by the pacific islanders with twenty-one point three percent representation. The least represented group was the Hispanics with twelfth percent (see figure 3).
Results
Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationships among the variables. What I found is that the cvorrelation between attachment and agression is -.9173 and significant at .000. this indicate that the correlation or the relationship between attachment and aggression is fairly srong. and the correlation is significant. is negatively correlated with aggression, what it mean is that the higher the attachment score the less aggressive the child should be. The lower the attachment score the more aggressive the behavior would be. In addition, attachment is negatively correlated with delinquent behavior, and aggression is positively correlated with delinquency. From the data collected, it shows that there is a significant correlation between the all the variables, attachment, aggression and delinquency (see table 1).
There are other second-hand factors of delinquency such as gender and ethnicity. From the correlation analysis among the variables controlling for gender, it showed in the female bivariate correlation matrix, only the negative correlation between attachment and aggression was significant (see table 2). However for males, all correlation were in the hypothesized direction and significant. This support the point stated earlier in the literature that male commit more delinquent acts than female.
A correlation analysis among the variables controlling for each ethnic group was also done. Unfortunately, there were not enough cases to determine a significant correlation of each ethnic group in each matrix to provide valid results.
Discussion/Conclusion
In conclusion, my hypothesis was supported by the data that was collected. That attachment and aggression are correlates of delinquency. This study is applied only to the seventy-five subjects that I surveyed. This study should not be used to generalize about students from this three universities and one business college. To better this study, the method of sampling should be changed. The convenience samples is difficult to determine if it is representative of the population. In addition, more subjects should be acquired and there should be an equal number of females and males, equal representation of all the ethnic groups so that a generalization can be made. In this case, this study will be useful in future research.
Please complete the following information.
1. Age ______years old.
2.GenderMale____Female____
3.Ethnicity:
1.African American4. Indian American
2.Asian American 5. Pacific Islander (Please specify)__________
3.Hispanic6. Other (Please specify) ______________
4. What ethnicity best describes you? ____________________
Please answer these questions as well as you can when you were between the ages of five and eighteen. Please Circle SA for Strongly Agree, A for Agree, D for Disagree, and SD for Strongly Disagree.
4. My parent only seems to motivate me when I am angry. SA A D SD
5. I often feel angry with my parent without knowing why. SA A D SD
6. I get annoyed at my parent because it seems I have to
demand his/her caring and support.SA A D SD
7. I’m confident that my parent will listen to me.SA A D SD
8. I’m confident that my parent will try to understand
my feelings.SA A D SD
9.I talk things over with my parents.SA A D SD
10. I enjoy helping my parent whenever I can.SA A D SD
11. I feel for my parent when he/she is upset.SA A D SD
12.It makes me feel good to be able to do things
for my parent.SA A D SD
Please answer these questions at the best of your knowledge when you were between the ages five and eighteen. Circle SA for Strongly Agree, SA/D for Sometimes Agree/Disagree and SD for Strongly Disagree.
13. Argues a lot.SA SA/D SD
14. Cruel to animals.SA SA/D SD
15. Cruelty, bullying, or mean to others. SA SA/D SD
16.Deliberately harms self to attempts suicide.SA SA/D SD
17.Destroys his/her own thingsSA SA/D SD
18.Destroy things belonging to his/her family or
other children.SA SA/D SD
19.Doesn’t seem to feel guilty after misbehaving.SA SA/D SD
20.Gets in many fights.SA SA/D SD
21.Impulsive or acts without thinking.SA SA/D SD
22.Physically attacks people.SA SA/D SD
23.Repeats certain acts over and over, compulsions (describe)__________________
24.Screams a lot.SA SA/D SD
25.Strange behavior.SA SA/D SD
26.Swears or use of obscene language.SA SA/D SD
27.Threatens people.SA SA/D SD
28.I want things my way.SA SA/D SD
Please answer these questions as well as you can.
29. Were you ever arrested for any delinquent behaviors? Yes____No____
30.If you were arrested, how many times were you convicted? ? (Please specify.)______________
31.What types of delinquent acts did you commit and how often did you do it? (Please specify.) 1.__________________4.__________________
2.__________________5.__________________
3. __________________6. __________________
32.At what age did you start committing these delinquent acts? (Please specify.)______________
33.What reasons led you to commit deviant behaviors?
1.____________________________________________
2.____________________________________________
3.____________________________________________
REFERENCE
Baum, Cynthia G., (1989). Conduct disorder. In Thomas H. Ollendick & Michel Hersen
(Eds), Handbook of child psychopathology, 3rd Edition, 171-196.
Chesney-Lind, Meda, Mayeda, David, Marker, Nancy, Paramore, Vickie, & Okamoto,
Scott, (1998). Trends in delinquency and gang membership: An interim report to the state legislature. Honolulu, HI: Office of Youth Services, State of Hawaii.
Cooley, Charles H., (1902). Human nature and the social order. New York, NY: Charles
Scibners.
Cox, Steven M., & Conrad, John J. (1991). Juvenile justice: A guide to practice and
theory. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.
Elliot, Delbert S., & Huizinga, David., & Ageton, Suzanne S. (1985). Explaining
delinquency and drug use. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Elliot, Delbert S., &Mernard, Scott, (1996). Delinquent friends and delinquent behavior:
Temporal and development patterns. In J. D. Hawkins, (Ed), Delinquency and crime: Current theories. New York, NY: Cambridge university Press.
Empey, Lamar T., & Stafford, Mark C., (1991). American Delinquency, 3rd Edition,
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Eyberg, Sheila M., Schuhmann, Elena M., & Rey, Jannette, (1998). Child and adolescent
psychotherapy research: Development issues. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 26 (1).
Farrington, Doug P., (1996). The explanation and prevention of youthful offending. In J.
David Hawkins (Ed), Delinquency and crime: Current theories. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
First, Michael B., (1994). Diagnostic and statistical format of mental disorders, 4th
edition. N.W., WA: American psychiatric association.
Flowe, Heather, (1996). Psychological & sociological theories of crime [On-line],
Available: http://www.users.cts.com/king/h/hflowe/psych.htm
Garelli, Juan C., (1999). Theory of attachment [On-line]
Available: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/3041/outline.html
Goldstein, Arnold P., (1994). Delinquents on delinquency. Champaign, IL: Research
Press Books and Reports.
Kassebaum, Gene. (1974). Delinquency and social policy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Loeber, Rolf, & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1987). Prediction. In H.C. Quay (Eds),
Handbook of juvenile delinquency, 325-382. New York: Wiley.
Loeber, Rolf, (1990). Development and risk factors of juvenile antisocial behavior and
delinquency. Clinical psychology review, 10, 1-41.
Newcomb, M.D., Maddahian, E., & Bentler, P.M., (1986). Risk factors for drug use
Among adolescence concurrent and lonngitudinal analyses. American Journal of public health, 76, 525-531.
Parker, Ian, (1997). Group Identity and Individuality in times of crisis: Psychoanalytic
reflections on Social psychological knowledge. Human relations, 50 (2), 183-196.
Patterson, G.R., (1982). A social learning approach: Coercive family process. Eugene,
OR: Castalia
Patterson, G.R., DeBaryshe, Barbara D., Ramsey, Elizabeth, (1989). A developmental
perspective on antisocial behavior. American psychologists, 44 (2), 329-335
Perrone, Paul A., &Chesney_Lind, Meda, (1998). Media presentations of juvenile crime
in Hawaii: Wild in the streets? Crime trend series, 6 (1), 1-11.
Richmond, James B., & Perrone, Paul B. (1998). Crime in Hawaii 1997: A review of
uniform crime reports. Honolulu, HI: Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance Division.
Rutter, M., (1978). Family, area and school influences in the genes of conduct disorders.
In L.A. Hersov, M. Berger & D. Sheffer (Eds), Aggression and antisocial behavior in children and adolescences, 95-113.
Schmalleger, Frank. (1997). Criminal justice today. Upper Saddle River, NJ: A Simon &
Schuster Company.
Shoemaker, Donald J., (1990). Theories of delinquency: An examination of explanations
of delinquent behavior. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.
Snyder, Howard N., (1999). Violent juvenile crime: the number of violent juvenile
offenders declines. Corrections Today, 61 (2), 96-101.
Thio, Alex, (1998). Deviant behavior, 5th edition. Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley
Longman Inc.
West, Malcolm; Rose, Sarah.; Sperng, Sheila; Sheldon-Keller, Adrenna; Adam, Kenneth;
(1998). Adolescent attachment questionnaire: A brief assessment of attachment in adolescence. Journal of youth and Adolescence, 27 (5), 661-671.