TY - JOUR
T1 - Jessor's problem behavior theory
T2 - Cross-national evidence from Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States
AU - Vazsonyi, Alexander T.
AU - Chen, Pan
AU - Jenkins, Dusty D.
AU - Burcu, Esra
AU - Torrente, Ginesa
AU - Sheu, Chuen Jim
PY - 2010/11
Y1 - 2010/11
N2 - Jessor (2008) has recently called attention to description versus explanation in cross-cultural and cross-national comparative scholarship on adolescent development, particularly, the etiology of adolescent problem behaviors. In the current study, we were interested in testing to what extent problem behavior theory replicated in samples of 10,310 adolescents from 8 distinct developmental contexts, including Asian, Eastern and Western European, North American, and Eurasian/Muslim cultures. Path analyses by country samples as well as follow-up multigroup analyses provided evidence of great similarities across cultures in the links among two protective factor domains (controls protection and support protection), three risk factor domains (models risk, opportunity risk, and vulnerability risk), and the problem behavior syndrome, operationalized by vandalism, general deviance, school misconduct, theft, and assault measures. This evidence adds to a growing body of scholarship that provides support for similarities in explanation, despite many observed differences in description.
AB - Jessor (2008) has recently called attention to description versus explanation in cross-cultural and cross-national comparative scholarship on adolescent development, particularly, the etiology of adolescent problem behaviors. In the current study, we were interested in testing to what extent problem behavior theory replicated in samples of 10,310 adolescents from 8 distinct developmental contexts, including Asian, Eastern and Western European, North American, and Eurasian/Muslim cultures. Path analyses by country samples as well as follow-up multigroup analyses provided evidence of great similarities across cultures in the links among two protective factor domains (controls protection and support protection), three risk factor domains (models risk, opportunity risk, and vulnerability risk), and the problem behavior syndrome, operationalized by vandalism, general deviance, school misconduct, theft, and assault measures. This evidence adds to a growing body of scholarship that provides support for similarities in explanation, despite many observed differences in description.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Context
KW - Cross-cultural
KW - Deviance/delinquency
KW - Theory testing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78649315163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1037/a0020682
DO - 10.1037/a0020682
M3 - Article
C2 - 20873922
AN - SCOPUS:78649315163
SN - 0012-1649
VL - 46
SP - 1779
EP - 1791
JO - Developmental Psychology
JF - Developmental Psychology
IS - 6
ER -