Moving beyond the socialization hypothesis: The effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on the development of self-control

Michael G. Turner, Crista M. Livecchi, Kevin M. Beaver and Jeb Booth

Journal of Criminal Justice, 2011, vol. 39, issue 2, 120-127

Abstract: Purpose Gottfredson and Hirschi, in A General Theory of Crime, argue that the primary source of self-control is parental socialization. Specifically, parents who fail to supervise their children, to recognize their child's deviant behavior, and to punish such behavior are more likely to raise children with lower levels of self-control. Recent empirical research, however, has broadened the explanatory factors to include sources within schools, neighborhoods, and individual factors as significant contributors to the development of self-control. This study proposes that maternal smoking during pregnancy places additional limits on the development of self-control.Methods Using a subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (N = 542), we provide a comprehensive investigation of the variety of sources of self-control to include both individual and environmental covariates.Results Results indicate that maternal smoking during pregnancy significantly impacts the development of self-control net of parental, neighborhood, and school socialization. We also found that individual sources of self-control significantly vary across race and neighborhood context.Conclusions The sources of self-control are more complex than socialization from parents, schools, and within neighborhoods occurring in childhood and adolescence.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047-2352(10)00217-5
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:39:y::i:2:p:120-127

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Criminal Justice is currently edited by Matthew DeLisi

More articles in Journal of Criminal Justice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().