Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine whether sex moderates the indirect effect of depression on delinquency via cognitive impulsivity and if so, whether the effect is stronger in girls than in boys. Participants for this study were 845 (406 boys, 439 girls) middle school students who completed surveys annually between the sixth and eighth grades. A moderated mediation analysis revealed that the depression → cognitive impulsivity → delinquency pathway was moderated by sex, whereas the direct effect of depression on delinquency was not. Simple mediation analyses performed on male and female youth separately revealed that the pathway running from depression to cognitive impulsivity to delinquency was significant only in girls. The results of this study demonstrate how mediation and moderation can be used to integrate concepts from different theories, which in the current case included Beck’s cognitive theory of depression and gendered pathways perspective from feminist criminology.

摘要

本研究的目的是确定性别是否通过认知冲动调节抑郁症对犯罪的间接影响，如果是这样，这种影响在女孩中是否比在男孩中更强。这项研究的参与者是 845 名（406 名男孩，439 名女孩）中学生，他们每年在六年级和八年级之间完成调查。调节中介分析表明，抑郁→认知冲动→犯罪途径受性别调节，而抑郁对犯罪的直接影响则不然。分别对男性和女性青年进行的简单调解分析表明，从抑郁到认知冲动再到犯罪的途径仅在女孩中显着。