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General Strain Theory in Taiwan: A Latent Growth Curve Modeling Approach

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Abstract

Agnew’s general strain theory (GST) [Agnew R (2001) Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 38:319–361; Agnew R (2006a) Pressured Into Crime: An Overview of General Strain Theory. LA:Roxbury] has been the focus of considerable academic attention and has become an important criminological theory [Cullen et al. (2006) Taking Stock: The Status ofCriminological Theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction]. However, most previous empirical studies have employed Western samples (e.g., US sample) to test this theory, which hinders the generalizability of GST. Although some studies have used Eastern samples to evaluate GST, these studies are only cross-sectional, which makes drawing any causal relationship problematic, and a cross-sectional study cannot uncover the more dynamic relationship between strain, negative emotion, and delinquency. Furthermore, depression has become epidemic around the world [World Health Organization 2001, http://www.who.int/whr/2001/en/whr01_en.pdf) and many previous studies that test GST focus only on anger. This makes depression a crucial element in testing GST. The present study uses longitudinal data (Taiwan Youth Project) and a latent growth model (LGM) to investigate strain, depression, and delinquent acts among adolescents (12–15 years old). The results generally support GST propositions: both strain and depression increase delinquency, and depression mediates the strain–delinquency relationship. Some cultural-specific influences were also discovered.

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Notes

  1. The “emic” and “etic” difference is that the former is more concerned on the study of a phenomenon within a particular culture (“idiographic” style), whereas the latter tries to apply a general theoretical model to all different cultures, in an attempt to find universal behavior rules (“nomothetic” style) (Hofstede 2001).

  2. One reviewer raised a question about the high completion rate of the in-class survey. Although the author did not participate in this project, some information from the research project can provide insights. According to the project’s description, the research team not only carefully screens the field workers who will conduct the survey, but also trains these selected field workers extensively. Second, the project requires the field workers to screen answers before they return to the research center. Thus, field workers can greatly reduce the incomplete rate. Moreover, as is commonly true in Asian cultures, students in junior high school are usually highly disciplined and are told to respect those in authority. Consequently, students are likely to follow the field workers’ instructions to complete the survey.

  3. The stressful life events check list used in the present study does not include all possible stressful life events that occur in one’s life (e.g., victimization). Three reasons render this scale useful. First, this scale captures a variety of events that are disliked by youths in this age group, such as financial difficulty of one’s family, or breakups with good friends. These events are consistent with Herbert and Cohen’s (1996) suggestion that scales should be tailored to fit the studied population. Second, many of these events are commonly used in previous studies (Aseltine and Gore 2000; Hoffmann et al. 2000; Lin and Mieczkowski, in press). Third, as Turner and Wheaton (1995) argued, there is no advantage in using one particular scale rather than another. Hence, although this scale is not exhaustive, it captures the concept well.

  4. The critical value for each of these three fit indexes is based on the related literature. For CFI and TLI, values that are close to 0.95 indicate an acceptable fit (Hu and Bentler 1999). For RMSEA, values that are close to 0.06 or less suggest a good fit (Brown and Cudeck 1993).

  5. The model includes all the aforementioned freed parameters: relaxing the mean or intercept of the wave3 depression measure and the correlation between wave2 depression and wave2 strain.

  6. For ease of presentation, not all correlations that were estimated for Fig. 2 are shown in the figures. For Fig. 2, three correlations were estimated: between level and trend of strain (r = −0.36, P < .0.05), between level and trend of depression (r = 0.47, NS), and between wave2 strain and wave2 depression, as reported in the text. For Fig. 1, two correlations were estimated: between level and trend of strain (r = −0.39, P < .0.05), and between wave2 strain and wave2 depression (r = 0.219, P < .0.05).

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Acknowledgments

Data analyzed in this article were collected by the research project “Taiwan Youth Project.” This research project was carried out by Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, and directed by Dr. Yi, Chin-Chun. The Center for Survey Research of Academia Sinica is responsible for the data distribution. The authors appreciate the assistance in providing data of the aforementioned institutes and individuals. The views expressed herein are the authors’ own.

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Lin, WH. General Strain Theory in Taiwan: A Latent Growth Curve Modeling Approach. Asian Criminology 7, 37–54 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-010-9101-8

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