Open AccessGender differences in the relationship between early conduct problems and later criminality and substance abuse
Author(s) -
Fergusson David M,
Woodward Lianne J,
Horwood L John
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international journal of methods in psychiatric research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.275
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1557-0657
pISSN - 1049-8931
DOI - 10.1002/mpr.69
Subject(s) - psychology , test (biology) , structural equation modeling , substance abuse , regression analysis , cohort , substance use , conduct disorder , developmental psychology , demography , clinical psychology , medicine , sociology , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , paleontology , biology
This paper develops a multiple group structural equation modelling approach for examining gender differences in developmental data. The approach is applied to data on the continuities between early conduct problems and later offending and substance use behaviour in an unselected birth cohort of 1265 New Zealand children studied to the age of 16. The principal conclusions of this analysis are that the model structures linking early conduct problems to later outcomes were similar for males and females, but that there were gender specific differences in test means, test variances and some regression parameters. The analysis supports the view that common theories may be applied to both males and females, but suggests that these theories need to be sufficiently flexible to permit some model parameters to vary with gender. Copyright © 1999 Whurr Publishers Ltd.