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Aspirations, Expectations and Delinquency: The Moderating Effect of Impulse Control

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Abstract

Although prior research finds a robust link between delinquent behavior and expectations, or an adolescent’s perceived likelihood of obtaining one’s future goals, fewer studies have evaluated aspirations, or the perceived importance of achieving one’s goals. In addition, few studies consider how individual traits such as impulsivity affect the degree to which expectations and aspirations motivate or deter delinquent behavior. We contribute to this body of research by evaluating the independent effects of expectations and aspirations, and the aspiration-expectation gap (i.e., strain) on delinquent behavior during the year following an adolescent’s first arrest using a large (N = 1117), racially/ethnically diverse sample of male adolescents (46.55% Latino, 35.81% Black, 14.95% White, and 2.69% Other race). In addition, we considered how impulse control interacts with expectations, aspirations, and strain to motivate behavior. Our results indicated that both aspirations, expectations and strain uniquely influence criminal behavior. Importantly, aspirations interacted with impulse control, such that aspirations affected delinquency only among youth with higher impulse control. Our findings suggest that aspirations may only influence behavior if youth also have the psychosocial capabilities to consider their future aspirations when behaving in the present.

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Acknowledgements

The Crossroads Study is supported by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. We are grateful to the many individuals responsible for the data collection and preparation. The Crossroads Study is supported by grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Authors’ Contributions

Each author made substantial contributions to the present study. A.M. conceived of the study idea, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; C.S. aided in the statistical analysis and helped draft the manuscript; P.F. and L.S. participated in the design and coordination of the study, helped revise the manuscript and provided expert advice on adolescent development and delinquency. E.C. participated in the design and coordination of the study, revised the manuscript, and provided expert knowledge on adolescent psychosocial development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Irvine, USA

    Alissa Mahler, Cortney Simmons & Elizabeth Cauffman

  2. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Paul J. Frick

  3. Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia

    Paul J. Frick

  4. Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

    Laurence Steinberg

  5. King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Laurence Steinberg

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  1. Alissa Mahler
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  3. Paul J. Frick
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  4. Laurence Steinberg
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Correspondence to Alissa Mahler.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standard.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mahler, A., Simmons, C., Frick, P. et al. Aspirations, Expectations and Delinquency: The Moderating Effect of Impulse Control. J Youth Adolescence 46, 1503–1514 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0661-0

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