IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i2p258-d130099.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Predicting Effects of the Self and Contextual Factors on Violence: A Comparison between School Students and Youth Offenders in Macau

Author

Listed:
  • T. Wing Lo

    (Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

  • Christopher H. K. Cheng

    (Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the self and contextual factors for violence in two samples of school students and youth offenders in Macau. There were 3085 participants who were between 12 and 20 years old; 48.3% of them were male and 51.7% female. Findings revealed that youth offenders exhibited more violence than school students. For the self factors, while lower self-esteem and higher self-efficacy of school students were associated with more violent behavior, these two variables had no significant effects for youth offenders. For the contextual factors, family conflict was the strongest predictor of violence, and school commitment/attachment was the weakest predictor for both samples. For youth offenders, family conflict had the largest direct effect, followed by susceptibility to negative peer influence and influence of the Triad gangs, while school commitment/attachment had a significant though mild direct effect. For school students, family conflict mediated the effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on violence. While Triad gangs’ influence was the second strongest predictor of violence, being exposed to Triad gangs’ influence also mediated the effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on violence. It is recommended that youth outreach services with a focus on family support and gang detachment for at-risk youth be strengthened.

Suggested Citation

  • T. Wing Lo & Christopher H. K. Cheng, 2018. "Predicting Effects of the Self and Contextual Factors on Violence: A Comparison between School Students and Youth Offenders in Macau," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:258-:d:130099
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/258/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/258/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dong, Beidi & Krohn, Marvin D., 2016. "Escape from violence: What reduces the enduring consequences of adolescent gang affiliation?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 41-50.
    2. Ozkan, Turgut, 2016. "Reoffending among serious juvenile offenders: A developmental perspective," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 18-31.
    3. Hoeben, Evelien M. & Meldrum, Ryan C. & Walker, D'Andre & Young, Jacob T.N., 2016. "The role of peer delinquency and unstructured socializing in explaining delinquency and substance use: A state-of-the-art review," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 108-122.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. T. Wing Lo & John W. L. Tse & Christopher H. K. Cheng & Gloria H. Y. Chan, 2019. "The Association between Substance Abuse and Sexual Misconduct among Macau Youths," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Víctor Arufe-Giráldez & Félix Zurita-Ortega & Rosario Padial-Ruz & Manuel Castro-Sánchez, 2019. "Association between Level of Empathy, Attitude towards Physical Education and Victimization in Adolescents: A Multi-Group Structural Equation Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-13, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John P. Hoffmann, 2022. "Family Structure, Unstructured Socializing, and Heavy Substance Use among Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Dylan B. Jackson & Melissa S. Jones & Daniel C. Semenza & Alexander Testa, 2023. "Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Delinquency: A Theoretically Informed Investigation of Mediators during Middle Childhood," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Mohammad, Taufik & Nooraini, Intan, 2021. "Routine activity theory and juvenile delinquency: The roles of peers and family monitoring among Malaysian adolescents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    4. Ward, Jeffrey T. & Forney, Megan, 2020. "Unpacking within- and between-person effects of unstructured socializing and differential association on solo- and co-offending," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Cihan, Abdullah & Sorensen, Jonathan & Chism, Kimberly A., 2017. "Analyzing the offending activity of inmates: Trajectories of offense seriousness, escalation, and de-escalation," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 12-18.
    6. Hargrove, Emily M. & Stults, Brian J. & Hay, Carter & Meldrum, Ryan C., 2023. "Sleep duration as a mediator of the effects of risk factors for substance use," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Hirtenlehner, Helmut & Baier, Dirk, 2019. "Self-control and offending in late adulthood. Investigating self-control's interaction with opportunities and criminal associations in advanced age," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 117-129.
    8. Pietenpol, Annelise M. & Morgan, Mark Alden & Wright, John Paul & Almosaed, Nora F. & Moghrabi, Sameera S. & Bashatah, Fawzia S., 2018. "The enforcement of crime and virtue: Predictors of police and Mutaween encounters in a Saudi Arabian sample of youth," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 110-121.
    9. Boman, John H. & Mowen, Thomas J., 2018. "Same feathers, different flocks: Breaking down the meaning of ‘behavioral Homophily’ in the etiology of crime," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 30-40.
    10. Proctor, K. Ryan & Niemeyer, Richard E., 2020. "Retrofitting social learning theory with contemporary understandings of learning and memory derived from cognitive psychology and neuroscience," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Cuevas, Celina & Wolff, Kevin T. & Baglivio, Michael T., 2019. "Dynamic risk factors and timing of recidivism for youth in residential placement," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 154-166.
    12. Chan, H.C.O., 2019. "Exploring the overlap between victimization and offending among Hong Kong adolescents," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 72-80.
    13. Jaimee Mallion & Jane Wood, 2020. "Street Gang Intervention: Review and Good Lives Extension," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-24, September.
    14. Lee, Wanhee & Noh, Keeyoon & Lee, Seung Hyun & Lee, Chang-Bae, 2019. "Responsibility and recidivism: An event history analysis of South Korean juvenile cases," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 154-162.
    15. Lee, Yeungjeom & Kim, Jihoon, 2022. "Psychopathic traits and different types of criminal behavior: An assessment of direct effects and mediating processes," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    16. Breen, Alison & Daniels, Karen & Tomlinson, Mark, 2019. "Adolescent's views on youth gang involvement in a South African Township," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 171-177.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:258-:d:130099. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.