A test of the validity of delinquency syndrome construct in a homogeneous sample.

This was a study of 387 adolescents who regularly attended churches affiliated with a primary Protestant denomination in a Midwestern state. The purpose was twofold: (1) to determine if the delinquency syndrome argument has validity in a sample of religious youths, by testing whether the same basic theoretical models explained crime and drug use; and (2) to examine the relative utility of sociodemographic, social control and social learning factors in explaining these two forms of delinquency. The study finds that all theoretical factors investigated are correlated significantly with both crime and use of drugs; however, some of these factors are differentially related to those two forms of delinquency. Also, social control elements did account for more additional variance in crime than did social learning or sociodemographic factors. Implications for future research are discussed in the context of limitations of the present study. Copyright 2000 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.