Impulsivity Mediates the Relationship between Future Orientation and Juvenile Deviancy

ABSTRACT

Both future orientation and impulsivity are intrinsic parts of an adolescent’s self-control, and empirical evidence clearly establishes them as crucial features on the origin of juvenile deviant behavior. However, we do not yet fully understand how these variables relate in explaining deviant conduct. In the present study, we tested a mediation model between these variables among 126 Portuguese adolescents. Findings support the mediation model in analysis, namely that impulsivity fully mediates the effect of future orientation on deviant behavior. In conclusion, our results suggest that lesser future orientated youth develop impulsive behavior which, in turn, explains their higher deviant conduct.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Gouveia-Pereira

MARIA GOUVEIA-PEREIRA is a psychologist with a Ph.D. in Psychology. She is a professor in University of Lisbon (ISPA-IU), Portugal, and a clinical therapist. Her main topic of interest is juvenile delinquency, especially concerning the causes of offending (e.g., family and individual characteristics), self-injurious behaviors, and suicide in adolescence.

Hugo MS Gomes

HUGO MS GOMES is a psychologist with a master’s degree in criminal psychology, and he is a researcher at the “Recidivism Project: Recidivism assessment of young offenders and delinquency prevention” at the Research Unit of Justice and Violence, from the Research Centre of the School of Psychology at the University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. His main topic of interest is juvenile delinquency, especially concerning the causes of offending (e.g., family and individual characteristics) and experimental criminology (e.g., effectiveness of juvenile justice orders).

Filipa Roncon

FILIPA RONCON is a psychologist, has a graduation in community psychology and a master’s degree in criminal psychology. Currently she’s working as a clinical psychologist. Her main topics of interest are temporal orientation, juvenile delinquency, and group therapies. Has worked with adjudicated adolescents and also with children and adolescents at risk. Has participated in the 10th National Congress of Health Psychology (2014), with the presentation “I wonder if I look to the future, I’ll be less deviant?”

Rita Mendonça

RITA MENDONÇA holds a master’s degree in criminal psychology and she currently works as a research assistant under the project “Analysing Social Communication” at the William James Center for Research at ISPA–University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal. Her master thesis focused on the role adolescent deviant behavior plays in the relation between belief in a just world and the use of secondary victimization strategies. Thus, her research interests include the psychology of justice, namely how justice beliefs impact on juvenile deviant behavior as well as the perception of victims. More recently, her research interests have also turned to social cognition and the embodiment theory.