Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences Yin et al. / Leisure Activities Participation in Leisure Activities and Involvement in Delinquency by Mexican American Adolescents

Juvenile delinquency and substance use among American youth have become major con-cerns in today’s society. The various paths that adolescents may take into lives of delin-quency are varied and complex. One potentially fruitful avenue for researchers to explore is adolescent use of free time and its relationship to delinquency. This study was designed to develop and validate a typology of leisure time activities using a scale devel-oped for this study called the Adolescent Leisure Time Activity Scale (ALTAS). An addi-tional purpose of the study was to examine the association between participation in the type of leisure activity and delinquent behavior among low socioeconomic status mid-dle and senior high school Mexican American adolescents. The sample for the study consisted of 2,651 Mexican American adolescents. Results indicate that a higher level of involvement in delinquency was significantly associated with increased participa-tion in unsupervised socialization with friends and less frequent participation in organized leisure and sport activities and in activities at home. Different associations of leisure activities and delinquent acts also were observed between male and female participants. Various theories and models have been proposed to explain the develop-ment of delinquency. Factors considered include social strain, social con-trol, school failure, familial environment, and leisure boredom (for detaile