Gendered pathways from strain to delinquency during adolescence: an integration of general strain theory and differential gender socialization.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20003228

A challenge for criminological theorists has been to explain both why females are so much less likely to offend than males and why they differ from males in types of crimes they do commit. By integrating general strain theory with gender socialization theory, the current research proposes a framework for understanding both of these gendered patterns of offending. More specifically, the conceptual model proposes that gender conditions the strain-delinquency pathway, leading masculinely and femininely socialized adolescents to differ in their perceptions of, and emotional responses to strain. These in turn affect the likelihood of a delinquent response and the type of delinquency chosen. Based on analyses of the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the results provide initial support for the conceptual model, suggesting that gender socialization does condition each step of the general strain pathway. The results suggest that masculinely and femininely socialized adolescents may have unique pathways to delinquency.