TRAJECTORIES OF SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY CONNECTEDNESS IN ADOLESCENCE BY GENDER AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR

Previous studies suggest that both school and community connectedness among adolescents are associated with prosocial behaviors and positive outcomes. While delinquency is associated with lack of connectedness to school and community, little research has considered how delinquency affects this relationship for adolescents living in impoverished neighborhoods. This study estimated gendered trajectories of school and community connectedness for adolescents in impoverished neighborhoods as a function of their levels of delinquency. Results showed that delinquency was negatively correlated and that age was positively correlated with school connectedness for both genders. In contrast, community connectedness increased with age for boys, but decreased with age for girls. In addition, delinquency was negatively related to community connectedness for boys, but not for girls. These findings suggest that for adolescents in impoverished neighborhoods, gender‐informed interventions to decrease delinquency could have positive effects on school and community connectedness.