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Ethnic Identity and Offending Trajectories Among Mexican American Juvenile Offenders: Gang Membership and Psychosocial Maturity
Author(s) -
Knight George P.,
Losoya Sandra H.,
Cho Young Il,
Chassin Laurie,
Williams Joanna Lee,
CotaRobles Sonia
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00819.x
Subject(s) - ethnic group , psychosocial , maturity (psychological) , psychology , identity (music) , juvenile delinquency , erikson's stages of psychosocial development , developmental psychology , demography , psychiatry , sociology , physics , anthropology , acoustics
We examined the association of joint trajectories of ethnic identity and criminal offending to psychosocial maturity, gang membership, and M exican A merican affiliation among 300 M exican A merican male juvenile offenders from ages 14 to 22. There were two low‐offending groups: one was the highest in ethnic identity and changing slightly with age and the other was the lowest in ethnic identity and stable with age. A third group displayed moderately declining offending and moderately stable ethnic identity. A fourth group displayed high‐offending individuals with moderate, but increasing, levels of ethnic identity, who were initially lower in psychosocial maturity and more likely to be gang members. The findings highlight the need to contextualize theories of ethnic identity development.