An evaluation of dual systems theories of adolescent delinquency in a normative longitudinal cohort study of youth

Purpose: Dual systems theories of adolescent risk-taking propose that the socioemotional and self-regulation systems develop at different rates, resulting in a peak in sensation-seeking in adolescence at a time when self-regulation abilities are not yet fully mature. This ‘developmental imbalance’ between bottom-up drives for reward and top-down control is proposed to create a period of vulnerability for high-risk behaviours such as delinquency, substance use, unprotected sex, and reckless driving. However, as recently noted by Meisel et al. (2019), almost no studies have tested this hypothesis directly owing to a lack of studies that have exploited longitudinal data to construct developmental measures of imbalance. Methods: In this study, we use data from the longitudinal z-proso study (n=1522) to test whether the presence of a developmental imbalance between sensation-seeking and self-regulation is associated with levels of engagement in delinquency across early adolescence to adulthood. Results: Using a latent class growth analysis of sensation-seeking, self-regulation and delinquency, we found that a model with 3-classes was optimal in the whole sample and male sub-sample, including one class characterised by a developmental imbalance and corresponding adolescent peak in delinquency. In females, we found no evidence for a class that could be described according to the trajectories hypothesised in dual systems theory. Conclusions: Results support the claim that a developmental imbalance may drive an adolescent increase in delinquency, but only for a small subgroup of individuals, particularly males.