SCHOOL FAILURE AND DELINQUENCY Which Causes Which?

An extensive literature has developed on the relationship between school failure and adolescent misconduct. Almost all of this literature has assumed that school failure is causally prior to adolescent misconduct. but little systematic attention has been devoted to the critical issue of causal order. of misconduct is causally prior to school failure, most of the recent work on the school‐delinquency linkage would have to be rejected. Given a workable definition of “delinquency” or “misconduct.” the causal order issue can be empirically assessed. Evidence from cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies provides at least tentative support for the proposition that school failure precedes misconduct in the causal process.