Mediating the relationship between neighbourhood disorder in adolescence and early adult offending with cognitive impulsivity and moral neutralization

The objective of this study was to evaluate whether cognitive impulsivity is capable of mediating the relationship between perceived neighbourhood disorder and early adult offending. A sample of 666 (318 males, 348 females) mid- to late-adolescent youth (mean age = 16.25 years) from the Offending, Crime, and Justice Survey (OCJS) served as participants in this study. Four waves of data, with one year between each wave, were used to test the hypothesis that cognitive impulsivity, but not moral neutralisation, would tie perceived neighbourhood disorder during adolescence to early adult offending. Control variables (age, sex, race, household income, parental support, and peer delinquency) were assessed at Wave 1, the independent variable (perceived neighbourhood disorder) and precursors to the two mediating variables (cognitive impulsivity, moral neutralisation) were assessed at Wave 2, the two mediating variables and the precursor to the dependent variable (offence variety) were assessed at Wave 3, and the dependent variable was assessed at Wave 4. A causal mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect effect running from perceived neighbourhood disorder to cognitive impulsivity to early adult offence variety. The direct (unmeditated) effect of perceived neighbourhood disorder on offence variety, the indirect effect of perceived neighbourhood disorder on offence variety via moral neutralisation, and the difference between the two indirect effects were all nonsignificant. The results of this study support the notion that perceived neighbourhood disorder in mid- to late adolescence contributes to offending behaviour two years later by increasing the antisocial thought process of cognitive impulsivity.