Citation
Palmer-Boyes, Ashley; Jang, Sung; & Joon (2008). Gender differences in strain adaptations: A study of childhood maltreatment and violent victimization during adolescence. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology. St. Louis, MO.Abstract
Previous studies on General Strain Theory (GST) tend to show that gender differences in crime and deviance are attributable partly to male-female differences in strain (type, not amount), negative emotions (type and amount), and conditioning factors. However, GST research on gender differences in behavioral consequences of strain and negative emotions remains limited. To address this issue, we examine whether males and females tend to engage in different types of deviant act as a result of experienced and anticipated strain, such as child abuse, physical and sexual, and physical victimization. Specifically, we hypothesize that, whether personal or vicarious, experience of violence and, to a lesser extent, anticipated criminal victimization are more likely to result in violence toward other people among men than women. On the other hand, women are at a higher risk of engaging in self-directed deviant act (e.g., drug use or eating disorder) and violence toward self (e.g., suicide) than men partly because females are more likely than males to experience self-directed negative emotions (e.g., depression) in response to strain. To test our hypotheses, we analyze the first three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.Reference Type
Conference proceedingBook Title
Annual Meeting of the American Society of CriminologyAuthor(s)
Palmer-Boyes, AshleyJang, Sung
Joon