Citation

Rosenberg FR, Rosenberg M, McCord J. J. Youth Adolesc. 1978; 7(3): 279-294.

Affiliation

Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF01537978

PMID

24408810

Abstract

Cross-lagged panel correlation technique is used to examine whether self-esteem has a greater effect on delinquency than delinquency has on self-esteem. Analysis of a nationwide study of tenth-grade boys shows that self-esteem is the more powerful causal factor, even when initial levels of delinquency are held constant. This result, however, is found to be stronger in the lower class than in the upper class. These data are interpreted as lending greater support to Kaplan's theory of the self-enhancing nature of delinquent behavior than to the idea of reflected appraisals.

Language: en