Paul E. Bellair, esteemed professor of Sociology at The Ohio State Univeristy and respected researcher, presents:
Economic Hardship, Physical Aggression, and the Emergence of Delinquency in Childhood
The presumed role of family socioeconomic status (SES) in the etiology of delinquency has been intensely debated and even rejected, yet it remains central to many sociological perspectives including life course models. Drawing on a sample of males from the 3, 5, and 9 year follow-ups of the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (n = 1,076), we go beyond prior SES-delinquency research by investigating whether persistent family economic hardship predicts distinct patterns of aggression during the critical developmental period of early childhood. We then extend the model with analysis of self-reported delinquency at age 9. Results indicate that persistent economic hardship is associated with a three to six-fold increase in the relative risk of a “medium” or “high” aggression trajectory during childhood, and that both hardship and aggression trajectories in turn strongly predict delinquency net of explanations such as low verbal ability and low self-control. We conclude that a more foundational role for SES in delinquency and developmental models is warranted.
