On the development of self-control and deviance from preschool to middle adolescence

Publication date: Available online 24 August 2017Source:Journal of Criminal Justice
Author(s): Alexander T. Vazsonyi, Gabriela Ksinan Jiskrova
PurposeThe study tested whether developmental changes in self-control stabilize by late childhood (age 10) or continue into early and middle adolescence. Second, it tested the bidirectional, longitudinal relationship between self-control and deviance over an 11-year period.MethodsChildren (N=1159) from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) were assessed six times, ages 4.5 to 15years. Latent growth models tested self-control and deviance trajectories, using competing growth functions to capture change over time. The longitudinal, bidirectional self-control-deviance links were examined in a cross-lagged latent model.ResultsFindings showed that children’s self-control significantly increased during childhood, but stabilized sometime between 8.5 and 10.5years. Deviance also changed in parallel, but in the opposite direction; some evidence was found of continued change in deviance during early adolescence. Finally, self-control and deviance were bidirectionally and longitudinally linked across all assessments through childhood only.ConclusionsFindings support theoretical predictions that self-control principally develops during childhood (by age 10) and subsequently remains stable. They also support longitudinal, bidirectional self-control-deviance links, largely identical in size prior to the age of 10; study findings are contextualized vis-à-vis self-control theory as well as recent behavior genetic evidence.