The goal of this study was to test nonverbal intelligence and neighborhood social capital as protective factors against future delinquency in early adolescent youth placed at risk by virtue of their involvement in childhood conduct problems. Analyzing longitudinal data from 3,028 youth (1,565 boys, 1,463 girls) in one cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) and 3,682 youth (1,896 boys, 1,786 girls) in a second cohort of the LSAC, nonverbal intelligence, as measured by the Matrix Reasoning subscale of the WISC-IV, displayed a consistent moderating effect on the conduct problems–future delinquency relationship. According to these results, conduct problems were slightly but significantly less likely to lead to delinquency when nonverbal intelligence was high than when it was low or moderate. By shielding at-risk children from future delinquency, protective factors like high nonverbal intelligence may provide a means by which delinquency can be prevented or reduced.

本研究的目的是测试非语言智力和邻里社会资本作为保护因素，防止因卷入儿童行为问题而面临风险的早期青少年未来犯罪。对澳大利亚儿童纵向研究 (LSAC) 的一个队列中的 3,028 名青年（1,565 名男孩，1,463 名女孩）和 LSAC 的第二个队列中的 3,682 名青年（1,896 名男孩，1,786 名女孩）的纵向数据进行分析WISC-IV 的矩阵推理分量表显示了对行为问题-未来犯罪关系的一致调节作用。根据这些结果，与非语言智力低或中等时相比，当非语言智力高时，行为问题导致犯罪的可能性略有但显着降低。