The current investigation examined the psychometric properties of Grasmick et al.'s self-control measure and its relationship with deviance on large, representative adolescent samples ( N = 8,417) from Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. Important findings indicate that (1) the self-control measure is multidimensional; (2) the self-control measure is tenable for males, females, five different age groups (15-, 16-, 17-, 18-, and 19-year-olds), and adolescents from four different countries; (3) deviance as assessed by the Normative Deviance Scale (NDS) can be reliably measured in different countries; (4) self-control accounts for 10 to 16 percent of the total variance explained in different types of deviance and for 20 percent in total deviance; and (5) developmental processes involving self-control and deviance are largely invariant by national context. The investigation provides further support for the multidimensional self-control measure and its relationship with deviance independent of national context.

A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the nature of the relationship between both religiosity and family process with deviance. There are few studies, however, that investigate the interplay among religiosity, family process, and deviance. The current study sought to examine whether family process mediates the relationship between religiosity (conceptualized as ritualistic participation and relational practice) and deviance. High school students ( N = 865) responded to survey questions dealing with religiosity (two scales), family process (six scales for both mothers and fathers), and deviance (seven subscales and a total deviance scale). A structural equation modeling (SEM) analytic approach was used. Results indicated that family process did not mediate the relationship between religiosity and deviance. Relational practice was found to be a more robust predictor of deviant behavior than ritualistic participation. Future research in this area should seek to improve methods of data collection (e.g., multimethod) and to develop better scalar measures of religiosity.

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The current longitudinal study examined the protective effects of parenting processes on measures of adolescent adjustment (health-compromising and violent behaviors) in a sample of poor African American youth (N ϭ 2,867 A R T I C L E INTRODUCTIONDespite recent decreasing national crime trends, youth violence remains a serious public health concern in the United States (Hamburg, 1998;Snyder & Sickmund, 1999). Rates of violence perpetration and victimization by and of youth remain near-catastrophic (Brener, Simon, Krug, & Lowry, 1999), especially in comparison to other Western nations (Krug, Mercy, Dahlberg, & Powell, 1998;. Elliott, Huizinga, and Ageton (1985) identified that among adolescents, the ones most at-risk for violence perpetration and victimization are poor, urban male youth. In fact, growing up in a community where poverty, frustration, and hopelessness are endemic is highly predictive of later violence perpetration (Osofsky, 1995), both for male and female adolescents.Studying and further understanding violence and its etiology is paramount if we seek to address the problem and potentially offer solutions to it (Tolan, 2001;Tolan & Guerra, 1994). Because studies have established that violence perpetration frequently co-occurs with health-compromising behaviors (Basen-Engquist, Edmundson, & Parcel, 1995;Farrell, Kung, White, & Valois, 2000;Harris & Ryan, 2002;Orpinas, Basen-Engquist, Grunbaum, & Parcel, 1995), we need to also examine the etiology of such behaviors that may in fact follow the same etiological path as violence itself. Indeed, a number of investigations have provided consistent evidence that the same risk factors responsible for youth violence are also responsible for health-compromising behaviors (e.g., Brook, Balka, & Whiteman, 1999;Fitzpatrick, 1997;Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990;Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992;Hindelang, Hirschi, & Weis, 1981;Jessor, 1992;Loeber, Farrington, Stouthamer-Loeber, & Van Kammen, 1998b;Rutter, Giller, & Hagell, 1998).In a review of the literature, Tolan (2001) concluded that an epidemiological approach (i.e., large-scale, population-based samples) is necessary to further study and understand the etiology of violence and analogous behaviors. Furthermore, he suggested that given variability in risk factors depending on developmental timing (early, middle, or late adolescence) and depending on the sex of the adolescent (Reese, Vera, Thompson, & Reyes, 2001), we need to study the etiology for early, middle, and late adolescents, as well as for both male and female youth. Therefore, the current investigation examined the etiology of adolescent health-compromising and violent behaviors employing a multicohort, longitudinal sample of inner-city youth from high-crime neighborhoods in the Mobile, Alabama metropolitan area. Specifically, the study investigated the protective function of parenting processes in this high-risk developmental milieu for both health-compromising and violent behaviors over the course of 3 years-in male and female as well as early, midd...