RT Article
T1 Strain, Negative Emotions, and Deviant Coping Among African Americans: A Test of General Strain Theory
JF Journal of quantitative criminology
VO 19
IS 1
SP 79
OP 105
A1 Jang, Sung Joon
A2 Johnson, Byron R. 1955-
LA English
YR 2003
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1764276221
AB Although previous research on Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST) tends to yield significant effects of strain on negative emotions as well as deviance and crime, results tend to be mixed with regard to (1) the effects of negative emotions on deviance and crime and (2) conditioning factors that Agnew suggests affect the selection of coping strategies. To address these issues, we test hypotheses, derived from GST, about the relationships among strain, negative emotions, and deviant coping by analyzing data from a nationally representative sample of African American adults. Ordinary least squares regression results generally support our hypotheses. First, fully mediating the effects of strain on deviant coping, negative emotions have consistently significant effects on deviance, regardless of whether we use composite or separate measures of inner- and outer-directed emotions and deviance. Interestingly, as hypothesized, the same-directed effects of negative emotions on deviant coping are larger than the opposite-directed ones. Second, while self-esteem and self-efficacy as conditioning factors generally fail to receive empirical support, religiosity is found to significantly buffer the effects of negative emotions on deviance. Implications of our findings for further development of GST are discussed.
K1 Religiosity
K1 African Americans
K1 Deviance
K1 Distress
K1 General Strain Theory
DO 10.1023/A:1022570729068