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Approximately 2.2 million youth were arrested in 2003. They accounted for 12% of all violent arrests, including murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults (Snyder, 2005). Sixty percent of all court-involved youth experience mental health problems, including personality disorders (MacKinnon-Lewis et al., 2002). Symptoms of borderline and antisocial personalities are more common among offenders than the general population (McCord et al., 2001). However, not all youth displaying personality traits common among offenders participate in illegal activities. This suggests another variable might influence the relationship between personality and delinquency. For instance, children living in homes with substance abusers display higher rates of delinquency than other children (Sheridan, 1995). Familial beliefs and behaviors in support of antisocial behavior are also strongly correlated with delinquency (Gorman-Smith et al., 1998). Such factors might moderate the relationship between personality and delinquency.This investigation examined relationships among personality characteristics, parental and sibling substance abuse and criminal behavior, and delinquent behavior for 308 urban male youth, ages 13 to 17. The main research question was whether specific personality characteristics predicted serious delinquent behavior. Two hypotheses were also proposed: (1) parental and sibling history of substance use would moderate the relationship between personality characteristics and severity of delinquent offenses (i.e., level of offense) and (2) parental and sibling history of criminal behavior would moderate the relationship between personality characteristics and severity of delinquent offenses. The MACI (Millon, 1993) was used to measure personality characteristics. The Adolescent Parent/Guardian Questionnaire was used to gather information regarding parental and sibling substance use and criminal behavior. Official court records were used to retrieve level of offense.Results from multigroup invariance analyses supported Hypotheses 1 and 2, indicating that parental and sibling history of substance use and criminal behavior moderate the relationship between negativistic and borderline personality characteristics and serious offending. Results revealed a direct relationship between these personality characteristics and severity of offense for youth with parental and sibling histories of both substance use and criminal behavior. Interestingly, results suggested an inverse relationship between these personality characteristics and severity of offense for the group with neither histories of substance use or criminal behavior. |
