Self-conscious emotions and criminal offending.

This study examined the relation of personality traits--shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and pride--on offending behavior. Using survey data from a sample of 224 college students, the construct and criterion-related validity of scales of the Shame Proneness Scale, the Test of Self-conscious Affect, and the Personality Feelings Questionnaire-2 were assessed. Regression analyses showed that self-conscious emotions are important in the etiology of criminal offending. Specifically, rated pride was positively correlated with self-reported criminal activity, whereas ratings of guilt were negatively associated with offending. The relation of shame with criminality varied depending on the type of measure used to indicate proneness to shame.

Conditional covariation of binge drinking with predictors of college students' cheating.

Recent research has identified a variety of significant predictors of academic dishonesty, but virtually no studies have examined the conditional relation of binge drinking and students' cheating. Using a survey sample of 289 college students, this study tested the mediating relations of binge drinking with the correlation of independent variables--including opportunity, strain, and self-control--on self-reported academic dishonesty. Low self-control had a stronger correlation with students' cheating behaviors for those who were heavy binge drinkers (beta = -.52) than for students who were nonbingers (beta = -.38). Differential relations were found for other key variables, namely, opportunity and strain, at varying severities of binge drinking.

Does self-control account for the relationship between binge drinking and alcohol-related behaviours?

INTRODUCTION: Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory that there is an underlying factor accounting for all sorts of antisocial behaviour has attracted widespread theoretical and empirical attention. One of their most controversial statements is a 'generality' hypothesis, a notion that criminal, deviant and reckless acts are highly correlated because they are caused by individual differences in self-control. In this paper, we examine the extent to which self-control accounts for the relationship between two behaviours: binge drinking and involvement in alcohol-related behaviours, including criminal behaviour. METHOD: Questionnaires were given to students at a southern US university. A final sample of 241 students (35% males, 91% whites, aged 17-40). One question concerned binge-drinking, 11 others related to other alcohol-related behaviour; a 24-item scale measured self-control and sex was recorded. A probit model was used to test the effect of low self-control on binge drinking and on other alcohol-related behaviours. It was found that self-control exhibits a positive effect on both. But binge drinking and other alcohol-related behaviours are correlated, so a further analysis using a bivariate probit model was undertaken using a naïve model (no covariates), an unconstrained model (allowing self-control to exert a unique effect on both outcomes), and a constrained model forcing self-control to be the same for both outcomes. RESULTS: Our results suggest that while low self-control is a significant predictor of both binge drinking and alcohol-related problems, it does not fully account for the relationship between the two outcomes. In addition, separate estimation for each sex reveal a substantively different pattern of results. DISCUSSION: Further research is needed to disentangle the differences between the sexes. Situational factors, especially in males, may account for adverse alcohol-related behaviours. Other measures of self-control are also needed.

Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and life-course-persistent offending.

Evidence exists documenting the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and offspring criminal behavior. Although efforts to understand this relationship in a theoretical framework have only recently emerged, attempts made have been grounded in Moffitt's developmental taxonomy of antisocial behavior. Specifically, maternal cigarette smoking is generally viewed as a potential disruption in the offspring's neuropsychological development, which is subsequently associated with life-course-persistent offending. Using a birth cohort of 987 African Americans, the authors extend previous research by empirically assessing, prospectively, the link between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending while using different operationalizations of Moffitt's offending categorization. The authors' findings offer some support for the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking and life-course-persistent offending, which is dependent on how this concept is operationalized.

The interactive effects of low self-control and commitment to school on substance abuse among college students.

This study examined the combined influence of two predicting factors-low self-control and commitment to schooling-that research has shown have independent effects on substance abuse. In a sample of 598 college students, this study tested the interactive effects of these factors while controlling for other established predictors of binge drinking and drug use. Analysis showed that participants who had both low self-control and low schooling commitment had significantly higher scores on substance abuse than would be expected from the independent influences of the component factors, which suggests that the combined effects of these predictors on substance abuse have a greater influence than their direct influences.