Biology and Social Support 1 Running head: BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL SUPPORT

Interaction of Biology and Social Support on Adolescent Delinquency Student Name Westminster College

Biology and Social Support 2 Adolescent delinquency is an important topic to study, due to the high levels of delinquent behaviors that adolescents participate in. Adolescents participate in more delinquent acts than any other age group (MacNeil, Stewart, & Kaufman, 2000). 92.8% of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 have committed a delinquent act (Marcotte, Marcotte, & Bouffard, 2002). However, only 8.7% of these delinquent acts were more serious crimes sanctioned by law, such as robbery (Marcotte et al., 2002). The discrepancy between these statistics shows that the vast majority of delinquent acts that are being committed by adolescents are minor delinquent acts. These may include things such as minor theft, shoplifting, and graffiti (Houtzager & Baerveldt, 1999; Keijsers, Frijns, Branjie, & Meeus, 2009; Marcotte et al., 2002). These minor crimes constitute the majority of adolescent delinquency. The question of why adolescents engage in so many delinquent behaviors has plagued researchers for quite some time. Currently, researchers are examining potential biological and social forces that may be implicated in the high rates of adolescent delinquency. Puberty, temperament, and brain development have all been implicated as risk factors for adolescent delinquent behaviors. Biological sources alone, however, do not provide for a full explanation of adolescent delinquent behaviors. Social support plays a significant role as well. Many researchers feel that strong social support may help to decrease the rates of delinquency in adolescence, while weak social support may actually encourage it. Thus, adolescent delinquency appears to be the result of a biological and social / environmental interaction. Certain aspects of temperament have been associated with an increased risk for delinquent behaviors during the adolescent years. Novelty seeking is one temperament attribute that has been associated with delinquency in adolescence (Barnow, Lucht, & Freyberger, 2005). Novelty seeking is indicative of lower levels of self-control (Barnow et al., 2005; Casey, Jones,

Biology and Social Support 3 & Hare, 2008). A lack of self-control implies that the adolescent lacks the control to stop certain, sometimes inappropriate, behavioral impulses. If an adolescent lacks self-control, then, they are likely to do the things that they want to do regardless of other factors. This could relate directly to delinquent behaviors. The adolescent would act in a way that suited them, be it shoplifting, graffiti, or other acts. Thus, novelty seeking behaviors, which translate into lower levels of self control (Barnow et al., 2005; Casey et al., 2008), can be a risk factor for delinquent behaviors. However, novelty seeking is not solely related to temperament. Novelty seeking generally increases in adolescence due to the rewiring and restructuring that is occurring in the brain (Spear, 2000). If novelty seeking as a whole increases during adolescence, then it does not seem logical that it is related solely to temperament since temperament remains relatively stable over the life course. Thus, it is possible that temperament and brain development interact to create the higher risk of delinquency seen with novelty seeking behaviors. Perhaps the combination of increased levels of novelty seeking that are fairly normative for adolescence (Spear, 2000) combined with novelty seeking behaviors of temperament (Barnow et al., 2005) are what put adolescents at a higher risk for delinquent behaviors. Puberty has been identified as another biological risk factor for delinquency. Specifically, early pubertal timing is a risk factor for delinquent behaviors (Negriff, Fung, & Trickett, 2008). However, this is not the only aspect of puberty that has been implicated in adolescent delinquency rates. Adolescents who have a combination of early pubertal timing and a more mature pubertal stage are at an even higher risk of engaging in delinquent behaviors (Negriff et al., 2008). In Negriff et al.s (2008) study, this held true even after controlling for gender. This indicates that adolescent males and females are both at an increased risk for

Biology and Social Support 4 delinquency if they mature earlier and faster than their peers. Since puberty is a universal phenomenon, it is essential to gain a better understanding of this relationship. Although delinquent behaviors generally disappear after puberty (Najman et al., 2009), an understanding of exactly why puberty can be a risk factor for delinquent behaviors could be beneficial in decreasing the rates of delinquency during the adolescent period. The period of adolescence is characterized by behavioral changes, including risk taking and impulsivity (Andrzejewski et al., 2011). Recently, researchers have been focusing on the developing adolescent brain in an attempt to determine why adolescents are so prone to impulsive and risky behaviors. An impulsive adolescent may decide to steal a shirt from a store, thus becoming guilty of shoplifting. Or perhaps another adolescent will decide to tag a building with spray paint, thus becoming guilty of graffiti. Impulsive decisions and risky behaviors could likely result in delinquency. Some research that cant be ethically done on humans can be done on rats since the brain structure of humans and rats is comparable (Andrzejewski et al., 2011). From rat studies, we can learn quite a bit about brain development. In one study, Andrzejewski et al. (2011) compared adolescent and adult rats on an operant conditioning and extinction paradigm. They discovered that adolescent rats are much less sensitive to extinction than adult rats (Andrzejewski et al., 2011). This insensitivity to the extinction aspect of operant conditioning is highly correlated with impulsivity (Andrzejewski et al., 2011). Essentially, this means that the adolescent rats in the study were significantly more impulsive than the adult rats (Andrzejewski et al., 2011). The results of this study suggest that adolescents lack proper behavioral inhibition and self-control (Andrzejewski et al., 2011). However, this study does not explain why adolescents have significantly less behavioral inhibition and self-control than adults.

Biology and Social Support 5 There are several brain development theories that attempt to explain why there is such an increase in risky and impulsive behaviors during the adolescent period. One such theory evolves from various MRI studies. MRIs have revealed that myelination is not complete in areas of the brain that relate to higher level cognitive functions such as decision making and impulse control until late adolescence or early adulthood (Fareri, Martin, & Delgado, 2008). Myelination of neurons allows for better, more direct pathways between brain regions (Fareri et al., 2008). So, risky and impulsive behaviors in adolescence may be the result of incomplete or ineffective communication in areas of the brain involved with higher level cognitive functions. An extension of this theory holds that risky and impulsive behaviors during adolescence are the result of an immature prefrontal cortex (Fareri et al., 2008). The prefrontal cortex is responsible for many higher level cognitive functions such as logical thinking, planning ahead, and decision making (Fareri et al., 2008). However, research has recently revealed that the prefrontal cortex cant be solely to blame for the risky and impulsive behaviors of adolescence. If the immature prefrontal cortex were solely to blame, then we would see a linear pattern of risky behaviors across the lifespan (Casey et al., 2008). This would mean that children would engage in risky behaviors just as adolescents do because their prefrontal cortex is also immature (Casey et al., 2008). So, since risky behaviors do not develop linearly across the lifespan, the prefrontal cortex cant be the only area of the brain implicated in risky behaviors during adolescence. Another theory of adolescent brain development suggests that reward centers in the brain are maturing during adolescence (Fareri et al., 2008). Since these reward centers are not completely mature, they require higher levels of activation than in adulthood (Fareri et al., 2008). This translates into more risk taking behaviors in adolescence (Fareri et al., 2008), with

Biology and Social Support 6 individuals engaging in more risky behaviors to activate the reward centers in their brain. This theory is further supported by other research that suggests that adolescents exhibit greater reward center activation than adults (Fareri et al., 2008). Essentially, adolescents engage in more risky behaviors than adults to activate their rewards system, so it is logical that a higher activation of the rewards system would be apparent. The striving for rewards system activation that is common in adolescence relates to adolescents perceptions of risky decisions. In situations that involve a risky decision, adolescents tend to think that engaging in the risky behavior will lead to positive rather than negative outcomes (Galvan, Hare, Voss, Glover, & Casey, 2007). This data suggests that adolescents engage in risky behaviors because they believe that the outcome will be positive. Thus, adolescents tend to strive for immediate positive outcomes which prevents them from looking at potential long-term consequences (Galvan et al., 2007). However, not all adolescents engage in frequent risk taking behaviors. These individuals tend to perceive greater numbers of negative outcomes than their peers who do engage in risky behaviors (Galvan et al., 2007). This research suggests that adolescents who engage in risky behaviors do so for immediate gains without a thought for long term consequences because they are striving for reward system activation (Galvan et al., 2007). Galvan et al.s finding that adolescents engage in risky behaviors because of a belief that the outcome will be positive suggests a connection between risk taking behaviors and approach / avoidance mechanisms. Some research suggests that risky behaviors in adolescence are actually the result of a hyperactive approach system and a hypoactive amygdala, which translates to a decrease in avoidance mechanisms (Fareri et al., 2008). Essentially, this theory posits that adolescents engage in risky behaviors because their approach systems are stronger and more

Biology and Social Support 7 mature than their avoidance systems (Fareri et al., 2008; Steinberg, 2007). This difference leads adolescents to engage in more potentially risky behaviors because their avoidance system is not mature enough to override their approach systems. All of these theories about how brain development affects risk-taking behaviors during adolescence seem to be based on the idea that adolescents are incapable of thinking as logically as adults. However, research has shown that this is not the case. Adolescents and adults actually have similar levels of logical reasoning (Steinberg, 2007). Van Leijenhorst, Westenberg, and Crone (2008) provide support for this data through analysis of risk taking behaviors on a minor gambling activity. The researchers found that risky decisions are not likely to be the result of a lack of risk perception (Van Leijenhorst, 2008). This supports the notion that adolescents can indeed perceive risk as effectively as adults can (Steinberg, 2007). So, this brings into question why adolescents still engage in higher levels of impulsive and risky behaviors despite their logical thinking and risk-perception abilities. A similar study conducted by Figner, Weber, Mackinlay, and Wilkening (2009) highlights a potential reason for the difference between logical thinking, risk perception, and actual behaviors in adolescence. Figner et al.s (2009) research provides support for an interaction between emotional and logical brain processes in decision making and risk taking. They used the Columbia Card task, a minor form of a gambling activity, to examine risk taking in various age groups. The results revealed that adolescents took more risks when emotional processes in the brain were activated (Figner et al., 2009). When emotions were not involved, there was no difference in risk taking between adolescents and adults (Figner et al., 2009). These findings suggest that adolescents may engage in impulsive and risky behaviors partly as a result of emotion.

Biology and Social Support 8 Recent research is examining the role that emotions play in adolescent development. In adolescence, the limbic system matures before the prefrontal cortex (Casey et al., 2008; Steinberg, 2007). The limbic system is highly responsible for emotion (Casey et al., 2008). The greater maturity of the limbic system during adolescence suggests that adolescents are more influenced by the limbic system than by the prefrontal cortex (Casey et al., 2008). This translates into adolescents making decisions that are ruled by emotion rather than by logical reasoning. Indeed, in emotionally charged situations, adolescents may make a decision that they know is wrong because their more mature limbic system overrides their immature prefrontal cortex (Casey et al., 2008; Sternberg, 2008). Clearly, brain development during adolescence has a significant impact on the risky and impulsive behaviors seen during that period. Increased levels of risky and impulsive behaviors could easily translate into delinquent activities. However, biology is not solely to blame for delinquency during adolescence. The environment that a person lives in can have a drastic impact on their biological development. Some research points to a gene x environment interaction to partially explain delinquent behaviors (Beaver, Wright, & DeLisi, 2008). A gene x environment interaction is essentially a situation that causes a particular gene to be expressed when that gene would likely not have become active if it had been exposed to different environmental conditions (Beaver et al., 2008). Beaver et al. (2008) found evidence for a gene that made adolescents more likely to become involved with delinquent peers. However, this gene was only expressed in individuals who lived in families that had been categorized as high risk (Beaver et al., 2008). Beaver et al.s (2008) research clearly shows the impact that environment can have on an individuals behavior. An environment can have either beneficial or harmful effects on a

Biology and Social Support 9 persons development. This relationship is extremely important in understanding adolescent delinquency. Some biological and environmental forces put adolescents at risk for delinquent activities. One important environmental factor that influences delinquency during adolescence is social support. A strong social support system can help to decrease the risk for delinquency, while a weak support system can increase the risk. Perhaps one of the most important social support networks an individual has is the family. Both before and during the adolescent period, the adolescent spends a significant amount of time with their family. The family can be one of the biggest impacts in an adolescents life. The familys impact can be either positive or negative. The familys support or lack thereof thus has an impact on the childs behavioral outcomes. Family support generally refers to emotional availability and the presence or absence of conflict (Marcotte et al., 2002). Adolescents who engage in delinquent behaviors perceive much less family support than adolescents who do not (Marcotte et al., 2002; Windle & Mason, 2004). Marcotte et al. (2002) and Windle and Mason (2004) found that it is the level of familial support perceived by the adolescent that is most impactful, rather than the actual level of support. However, research conducted by Meeus, Branje, & Overbeek (2004), examines direct rather than perceived support. These studies show that direct support has just as much impact as perceived support. Direct support examines the actual relationship between the parents and their adolescent, rather than simply the adolescents perception of their relationship. Poor relationships between a parent and adolescent are characterized by little bonding between the parent and adolescent, along with harsh and inconsistent discipline (Meeus et al., 2004). Poor support such as this creates a poor social environment and contributes to higher rates of adolescent delinquency (Meeus et al., 2004).

Biology and Social Support 10 While poor relationships with parents are associated with higher rates of delinquency during adolescence, a positive relationship with parents has the opposite effect. Adolescents who have a good relationship with their parents are more likely to not engage in delinquent behaviors (Meeus et al., 2004). If the adolescent has a positive relationship with their parents and still engages in delinquent behaviors, then they are more likely to bring their delinquency to an end later in the adolescent or early adult phase of life (Meeus et al., 2004). This may be especially true for females. Females who interact with their mothers and receive high levels of support from her are much less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors (Landsheeer & van Dikjum, 2005). Communication within the family is another important factor of adolescent delinquency, and refers to the frequency that the family talks and interacts with each other. When adolescents perceive high levels of communication in their family, the adolescent is less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors (Davalos, Chavez, & Guardiola, 2005). If they feel that communication in the family is poor, the adolescent may get into trouble in order to get attention from their parents (Davalos et al., 2005). This study suggests that communication serves as a prevention against adolescent delinquency. Adolescents who feel that they have high levels of communication in their family feel less of a need to engage in delinquent behaviors in order to be noticed by their parents. If the adolescent is getting attention from their parents for non-delinquent activities, then they are less likely to engage in delinquency. As adolescents mature, it is normal for them to disclose less with their parents. This is a sign of their increasing autonomy (Keijsers et al., 2009). This may worry some parents and cause them to attempt to control their adolescents more. These parents may want to know more about their adolescents life than their adolescent is willing to disclose. However, high levels of

Biology and Social Support 11 control may lead to more delinquency rather than less (Keijsers et al., 2009). Adolescents who feel that their parents are overly-controlling may rebel, which would account for the higher rates of delinquency in highly controlling families (Keijsers et al., 2009). However, delinquency may also occur if the parents dont exert enough control over their adolescent. In families with high levels of support, a significant decrease in parental control was associated with a slight increase in delinquency (Keijsers et al., 2009). This effect is even truer in low support families. In these families, a decrease in parental control led to a significant increase in delinquency (Keijsers et al., 2009). These studies show that in both high and low support families, not enough control leads to an increase in delinquency. Both too much and too little control in a family can lead to adverse outcomes such as adolescent delinquency. Thus, it is important for parents to set rules, but not be overly controlling of their adolescents life. Friends are another important source of social support in adolescence. During adolescence, individuals tend to start spending more time with friends than with family. The time spent with friends thus becomes a very significant source of social support that can influence the adolescents rates of delinquency. Delinquency rates within groups of friends tend to be similar to each other (Houtzager & Baerveldt, 1999). This suggests that if an adolescents group of friends doesnt engage in delinquent behaviors, then neither will the adolescent. This could be a result of support within friendships. Marcotte et al. (2002) found that adolescent boys commit more delinquent acts than girls. Perhaps part of the reason that girls are less prone to delinquency than boys is because of their friendships. Adolescent girls have more support relationships with their friends than do boys, and also engage in significantly lower levels of delinquency (Houtzager & Baerveldt, 1999). This finding definitely suggests a link between support friendships and delinquency rates. People may be tempted to confuse the support level

Biology and Social Support 12 of friendships with the closeness of the friendships. However, there is no evidence that delinquency is associated with the closeness of peer relationships (Houtzager & Baerveldt, 1999). Another factor, perhaps support, creates the relationship that is seen between adolescent friendships and rates of delinquency. Adolescents who report both low parental and friend support are particularly susceptible to engaging in delinquent behaviors. Adolescents who report low support from their parents are more likely to report even lower support from their friends (Scholte, van Liewhout, & van Aken, 2001). The cause of this relationship is currently unknown. Both parental and friend support have been shown to influence rates of adolescent delinquency. Thus, adolescents who lack support from both family and friends are even more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors than adolescents who lack support from only one (Scholte et al., 2001). Adolescents who have high support from their friends and low support from parents are at the highest risk of engaging in delinquent behaviors (Scholte et al., 2001). This is likely the result of peer influence. If the adolescent feels neglected by their parents, they will turn to their friends for the support that they need. If the adolescents friends want them to engage in delinquent behaviors, they likely will. If an adolescent has a significant other, this individual can affect their risk for engaging in delinquent behaviors. The quality of the relationship is generally the factor that influences delinquency, not simply the fact of having a partner (Meeus et al., 2004). If the quality of the adolescents relationship with their significant other is high, they are actually less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors (Meeus et al., 2004). It is almost as if the significant other takes the place of the parents in lowering the adolescents risk for delinquency. These findings suggest that as long as the adolescents relationship with their significant other is high quality, then it will reduce the risk for delinquency.

Biology and Social Support 13 Schools are another important source of social support during adolescence. Adolescents spend approximately seven hours per day, five days per week at school. This is a significant amount of the adolescents time. Thus, the role of the school cant be ignored when examining risk factors for adolescent delinquency. A relationship exists between failure in school and delinquency rates. However, it isnt known whether failure in school leads to higher rates of delinquency or if delinquency leads to failure in school (Davalos et al., 2005). The relationship could easily go either way. If an adolescent tries in school and fails, they will likely feel that they are a failure. This feeling of failure could cause them to go outside of the school to find activities that make them feel important. The activities that the adolescent engages in to make themselves feel of worth could be delinquent in nature. The relationship may also occur in the inverse. If an adolescent is delinquent, they most likely would not care about school activities. This lack of caring could lead them to fail. However, this relationship needs to be studied more to determine causality. Parental support is related to school support. If the adolescent feels that their parents support them in their school-related activities, they tend to engage in fewer delinquent behaviors (Davalos et al., 2005). This could be a result of the parents support in general. Parental support can help to decrease the risk for delinquency (Marcotte et al., 2002; Windle & Mason, 2004; Meeus et al., 2004). Therefore, it is not surprising that parental support in school activities also helps to decrease the risk for adolescent delinquency. Perhaps in their research, Davalos et al. (2005) were inadvertently examining the effects of parental support rather than the effects of parental support on school activities. It seems likely that the positive impact of parental support on adolescents in general would carry over to all realms of focus, including school activities.

Biology and Social Support 14 However, the positive impact of social support on school activities cant be generalized across all neighborhoods. The neighborhood that a school is in has an impact on the adolescents associations with school. When schools are in poor neighborhoods, adolescents tend to report less school engagement regardless of social support from parents, friends, and peers (Daly, Shin, Thakral, Selders, & Vera, 2009). Poor neighborhoods have many social problems, much more so than wealthy neighborhoods. The study conducted by Daly et al. (2009) shows that the negative social environment present in poor neighborhoods often cannot be counteracted with support from parents and friends. The adolescents in these neighborhoods are more likely to be less engaged in school, and thus more prone to delinquent behaviors. Biological and environmental forces impact adolescent delinquency. It is impossible to understand why delinquency is so common during adolescence without examining both of these factors. Various aspects of biology including temperament, puberty, and normal brain development can be risk factors for delinquency during adolescence. A lack of social support may also be a risk factor. However, strong social support decreases the risk for adolescent delinquency. Biology and environment interact so completely with each other that it is often difficult to differentiate exactly how much of an impact each one has on any individual. This is true for delinquency rates as well. Adolescent delinquency can only be understood as an interaction of various biological and environmental forces.

Biology and Social Support 15 References Andrzejewski, M.E., Schochet, T.L., Feit, E.C., Harris, R., Mckee, B.L., & Kelley, A.E. (2011). A comparison of adult and adolescent rat behavior in operant learning, extinction, and behavioral inhibition paradigms. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125, 93-105. Barnow, S., Lucht, M., & Freyberger, H.J. (2005). Correlates of aggressive and delinquent conduct problems in adolescence. Aggressive Behavior, 31, 24-39. Beaver, K.M., Wright, J.P., & DeLisi, M. (2008). Delinquent peer group formation: Evidence of a gene x environment correlation. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 169, 227-244. Casey, B.J., Jones, R.M., & Hare, T.A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Ann NY Acad Sci, 1124, 111-126. Daly, B.P., Shin, R.Q., Thakral, C., Selders, M., & Vera, E. (2009). School engagement among urban adolescents of color: Does perception of social support and neighborhood safety really matter? Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38, 63-74. Davalos, D.B., Chavez, E.L., & Guardiola, R.J. (2005). Effects of perceived parental school support and family communication on delinquent behaviors in latinos and white nonlatinos. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 11, 57-68. Fareri, D.S., Martin, L.N., & Delgado, M.R. (2008). Reward-related processing in the human brain: Developmental considerations. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 1191-1211. Figner, B., Weber, E.U., Mackinlay, R.J., & Wilkening, F. (2009). Affective and deliberative processes in risky choice: Age differences in risk taking in the columbia card task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 709-730. Galvan, A., Hare, T., Voss, H., Glover, G., & Casey, B.J. (2007). Risk taking and the adolescent brain: Who is at risk? Developmental Science, 10, F8-F14.

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Biology and Social Support 17 Scholte, R.H.J., van Lieshout, C.F.M., & van Aken, M.A.G. (2001). Perceived relational support in adolescence: Dimensions, configurations, and adolescent adjustment. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11, 71-94. Spear, L.P. (2000). Neurobehavioral changes in adolescence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 111-114. Steinberg, L. (2007). Risk taking in adolescence: New perspectives from brain and behavioral science. Association for Psychological Science, 16, 55-59. Van Leijenhorst, L., Westenberg, P.M., & Crone, E.A. (2008). A developmental study of risky decisions on the cake gambling task: Age and gender analyses of probability estimation and reward evaluation. Developmental Neuropsychology, 33, 179-196. Windle, M., & Mason, W.A. (2004). General and specific predictors of behavioral and emotional problems among adolescents. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 12, 49-61.