Hot or Cool Processing? Adolescent Decision-Making and Delinquency

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable period of individual development when decision-making is easily compromised, and criminal involvement reaches its peak. We draw on and extend novel decision-making perspectives and use the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 13,399) to analyze whether factors representing adverse physical conditions, negative mental states, and stressful social circumstances condition the effect of thoughtfully reflective decision-making (TRDM) on adolescent delinquent behavior. We find that experiencing various “hot triggers” such as sleep problems, depression, and straining conditions significantly reduces the crime-preventive impact of TRDM (an example of cool processing) among adolescents. We outline potential avenues for further theoretical development of integrated frameworks of decision-making and crime and discuss policy implications aimed at ways to deal with the adverse social, emotional, and physical triggers and foster thoughtful decision-making skills among adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• decision-making
• TRDM
• adolescence
• hot/cool processing
• crime and delinquency

Acknowledgements

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Notes

1 Paternoster and Pogarsky (2009) make the conceptual distinction between TRDM and self-control, a multidimensional trait commonly examined in criminological literature. Whereas self-control includes such components as desire for immediate gratification, enjoyment of thrilling activities, self-centeredness, and other similar dimensions, TRDM encompasses a process through which individuals make their decisions. The redefinition of self-control by Hirschi (2004) also does not involve the process of making decisions but rather reflects the tendency to ignore the consequences of one’s actions. Finally, Paternoster and Pogarsky (2009) underline that TRDM is more dynamic than self-control because it varies within individuals, over time, and across contexts, while levels of self-control are relatively fixed at a certain age. Therefore, the concept of TRDM is distinct from self-control and contributes to the criminological literature because it provides a more comprehensive conceptualization of an actual decision-making process, focuses on systematic reasoning and agency, and incorporates different stages of making choices.

2 While Van Gelder (2013) also briefly mentions the possibility of some mediating relationships involving hot and cool factors (e.g., affective factors influencing estimates of costs of criminal behavior), this study is limited to the examination of his main argument focusing on the moderation/interaction of cool and hot modes of processing (Van Gelder 2013, pp. 753, 759).

3 Detailed information about the Add Health data and sampling procedures is also available at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth.

4 We have chosen to use listwise deletion because of the potential for model misspecifications and various biases associated with the use of multiple imputation, as shown by recent research (see McIsaac and Cook 2017).

5 We did not utilize the 20-item depression measure from Wave I survey because different response formats and different time frames were used for some of its items.

6 We were not able to use the explicit measure of household income as a control variable because of a large amount of missing data (over one-fifth of the ADD Health cases have missing data for household income). However, we reran the analyses with household income substituted for parental education for the reduced sample and found the pattern of results similar to that in the core analyses with all direct and interactive effects of TRDM significant and in the expected direction.

7 To measure parent education, we used both parents’ and students’ responses about the highest educational degree obtained by parents. If parents’ responses were missing (about 12%), we used students’ responses (75% percent agreement). Parents’ education measure consisted of responses from the parent who was interviewed (usually mother/stepmother) and from spouse/partner. We averaged parents' education into one measure when data were present for both parents; if data for both were not present, we used on the present one only. If Wave I data on parents’ educational achievement were missing, we used the existent Wave II information on resident parents. The final measure had 1% missing.

8 To confirm the empirical difference between the TRDM and self-control constructs, we conducted exploratory factor analysis. The results from this analysis show that the TRDM items and one self-control item do not load on the same factor. The findings are consistent with those from various analyses conducted by Paternoster and Pogarsky (2009).

9 Since the three moderators (sleep problems, depression, and strain) can be theoretically related in various ways (e.g., strain may lead to depression and issues with sleep or problems with sleep may lead to depression and create strains in various domains of life), and this research focuses on their distinct (not overlapping with other moderators) conditioning influences on the relationship between thoughtfully reflective decision-making and adolescent crime, each interaction term is entered into the regression model separately.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anastasiia Timmer

Anastasiia Timmer is a PhD candidate at the University of Miami. Her research lies at the intersection of criminology and medical sociology. She is interested in causes of violence and delinquency, health of vulnerable populations, and cross-national research.

Olena Antonaccio

Olena Antonaccio, PhD, is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Miami. Her research interests include theory testing and development and comparative criminology.

Michael T. French

Michael T. French, PhD, is a professor of health economics in the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the University of Miami and the director of the Health Economics Research Group. His experience includes policy and program evaluation, substance abuse research, health economics, cost–benefit analysis, human resource economics, and the economics of crime.