Adolescent Delinquency and Diversity in Behavioral Settings

Purpose: This study aimed to test whether adolescents' delinquency is related to the geographic, functional and social diversity of the behavior settings that they are exposed to. Methods: Data were collected in a two-wave panel study amongst 616 adolescents. In the first wave, diversity was measured using a space-time budget interview recording their activities from hour to hour during four days. Self-control, morality, peer deviance, unsupervised peer activity, and parental supervision were measured using a self-report questionnaire. Delinquency was measured using self-report questions in the second wave. Results: The findings demonstrated that setting diversity is positively related to delinquency. For geographic and functional setting diversity, a substantial part of the positive association is independent of gender, age and the other explanatory variables. Conclusions: Adolescents' delinquency is not only affected by the overall contents of the settings that they encounter, but also by how much the content of settings varies over the course of the day. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.