Theses and Dissertations
Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice
Advisor
Steven Hecht
Committee Member
Marcelo Castro
Committee Member
Chad Posick
Keywords
age-graded theory, delinquency, Latino youth, life course, violence
Abstract
Researchers frequently aggregate Latino subgroups during statistical analyses despite findings indicating that cultural distinctions within Latino subgroups have unintended hidden impacts on analyses. This study disaggregated the Latino sample to assess if Latino youth samples differ among subgroups (i.e., Mexicans/Mexican Americans, Cubans/Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, Central/South Americans, and other Latinos) who self-reported violent and nonviolent delinquent behavior. Also, this study used Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory to investigate life-course characteristics that predicted violent and nonviolent delinquent behaviors. A two-step approach analysis determined the differences in violent and delinquent behaviors among Latino subgroups and then which life-course risk factors predicted the variability of self-reported violent and delinquent behaviors within Latino youth subgroups. To address the study questions, a MANOVA and ANOVA analyses was used to determine the differences in violent and delinquent behaviors among Latino subgroups in the dataset of Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health Survey. The second analysis of multiple linear regression analysis was utilized to determine if life-course predictive factors determine violent and delinquent outcomes within each Latino youth subgroup. The results of this study revealed that determinants of life-course risk factors (e.g., parental engagement, school trouble, neighborhood perception, sensation-seeking, and deviant peers) differed between Latino intra-ethnic subgroups and predicted certain Latino subgroup violent and delinquent outcomes. Consequently, this research has persuasive evidence that researchers not to aggregate analyses by combining the Latino sample, which may obscure statistical trends that depend on which Latino subgroup is considered.
NSUWorks Citation
Elvis G. Sevilla. 2024. Should We Disaggregate Latino Youths Based on Ancestral Group When Examining Risk Factors of Violent and Delinquent Behavior. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice. (633)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/fse_etd/633.