| The goal of this research is to examine whether the causal pathways leading to depression in girls and delinquency in boys are analogous, or parallel, by merging gender-neutral delinquency theories into a stress and coping framework. Analyses test whether the effects of variables contained in both theories have similar effects on delinquency (e.g., status and serious offenses and drug use) in boys and depression in girls. These variables include parental social support, parental control, maternal employment status, peer social support, academic aspirations, school attachment, school engagement, teacher support, self-esteem, work ethic, and support from other adults. Coefficients associated with the pathway variables' effects across gender groups, within the same outcome; within group, across outcomes; and across groups, across outcomes are examined for similarity in direction, significance, and magnitude. Data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 12,956). Analyses include structural equation modeling (SEM) and t-tests for independent samples.; Only father's support, parental control, maternal employment, and work ethic operated in the same direction, significance, and magnitude across gender groups, within the same outcome. The results for the within group, across outcome analyses suggest that parental support, school attachment, and support from teachers have similar effects on outcomes yet the direction of these effects are not always the same for depression and delinquency. Finally, depending on the conceptualization of delinquent behavior, the strength of the association between the pathway variables and depression for females and delinquency for males is not significantly different for approximately half of the pathway variables. Father's support in particular appears to be universally protective.; A number of pathway variables show similarity in direction, significance, and magnitude for depression and status offenses, but not for serious offenses and/or drug use. This suggests that there are gender differences among the adolescents who engage in these behaviors. Further, gender similarity in magnitude is the most problematic of the three evaluation criterion. Researchers should continue to focus on the utility of stress theory in explaining a number of outcomes. Finally, rather than focusing on differences between groups, perhaps an equally useful approach is to examine where similarities exist. |
