A developmental test of the general deviance syndrome with adjudicated girls and boys using hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis.

BACKGROUND

Over the last 40 years, numerous studies have proposed that various deviant behaviours are part of a latent construct now labelled 'general deviance' by criminologists or 'problem behaviour' by psychologists. During that period, many studies have documented the presence of specific forms of deviance. However, no study has tested these two opposing views simultaneously, particularly with longitudinal data.

AIMS

The objectives of this paper are the cross-cultural replication of the construct of general deviance for a French-speaking adjudicated sample of girls and boys and, specifically, the developmental replication of the general deviance syndrome.

METHOD

The age of onset is used as a developmental indicator of deviance instead of measures of participation or frequency.

RESULTS

The results of EQS hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses supported the existence of the construct of general deviance. In addition, there is no gender gap in the structure of the general deviance syndrome. This paper reports a comprehensive test of the general deviance syndrome because of the use of 45 deviant behaviours and nine types of deviance classified into four categories.