Age-graded theory of social control: Implications for the school-to-prison pipeline

Abstract

School exclusion during adolescence, namely suspension, expulsion, and drop out, has a number of immediate and long-term consequences for youth. Among these consequences are an increased likelihood of engaging in delinquency and risk of incarceration. Recent research has coined this process the “school-to-prison pipeline,” and while substantial evidence portraying the negative effects of school exclusion exists, much of this evidence overlooks important antecedents to exclusionary school punishment. Employing a developmental life course (DLC) framework, this dissertation applies a social control model across adolescence to evaluate how youths’ bonds to school influence school misbehavior and delinquency and contribute to suspension, expulsion, and drop out. It also expands on prior research that considers the consequences of school exclusion by evaluating this experience’s effects on employment, postsecondary education, and romantic relationships as youth transition into young adulthood, and considers how these age-graded sources of social control contribute to continued offending and incarceration. Importantly, using a diverse sample of 1,216 first-time juvenile offenders, this dissertation explores how these processes differ across race/ethnicity through multi-group structural equation modeling. Findings reveal partial support for the application of a social control model to the school-to-prison pipeline. Bonds formed to mothers in early adolescence are shown to positively influence the formation of a strong bond to school. Strong school bonds, in turn, reduce the likelihood that youth engage in school misbehavior and delinquency. Bonds to school are indirectly related to school exclusion and dropout through school misbehavior and delinquency. These negative events—school exclusion and dropout—increase the likelihood that youth offend in young adulthood, with dropout also increasing the risk of incarceration. While support for prosocial bonds in young adulthood acting as turning points is limited, individuals who are employed are less likely to experience incarceration. The multigroup model indicates that these relationships do not vary across race. Examining the school-to-prison pipeline under a unified lens allows for multiple intervention points. Implications for policy are discussed at each stage of the model and include targeting youths’ relationships with parents early in adolescence, engaging youth in school to promote strong bonds and discourage school misbehavior and delinquency, and implementing strategies to reengage youth who are excluded from or drop out of school.