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What Predicts Adolescent Violence in Better-Off Neighborhoods?

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Abstract

Predictors of repeated violent delinquency across ages 13–19 were investigated in a longitudinal sample of 420 urban adolescent males living in high- compared to low-socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods. Adolescents in high-SES neighborhoods were significantly less likely than their counterparts in low-SES neighborhoods to engage in serious and violent delinquency. Results indicated that risk factors for later repeated violence among adolescents in high-SES neighborhoods, such as physical aggression, may be biologically based, whereas risk factors for later violence among adolescents in low-SES neighborhoods, such as poor parent–adolescent communication and early intercourse, appeared to be context-dependent. Having positive attitudes toward problem behavior and delinquent peers increased risk for later violence regardless of neighborhood SES type. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

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Beyers, J.M., Loeber, R., Wikström, PO.H. et al. What Predicts Adolescent Violence in Better-Off Neighborhoods?. J Abnorm Child Psychol 29, 369–381 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010491218273

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