Predicting Four Delinquent Behaviors with Matched and Mixed Measures of the Perceived Wrongfulness of These Delinquent Behaviors: Testing for Effect Presence and Specificity

Perceived wrongfulness of four delinquent behaviors was examined in 3313 (1,699 males, 1610 females, 4 unidentified) high school students. Negative binomial regression revealed that the perceived wrongfulness of shoplifting correlated inversely with shoplifting a year later. The perceived wrongfulness of property damage likewise correlated inversely with future property damage, as did the perceived wrongfulness of underage drinking with future drinking behavior and the perceived wrongfulness of marijuana use with future marijuana use. Effects were confined to matched pairings in the underage drinking and marijuana use models, whereas they were nonspecific or generalized in the shoplifting and property damage models.