Subjective strain, anger, and delinquency: Evidence from South Korea

Even though GST presents a comprehensive theoretical framework that includes mediation and moderation effects, most previous GST studies tested only portions of the theory, failing to depict and assess the theoretical mechanism as a whole. Moreover, the majority of previous studies utilized an objective and cumulative measure of strain to examine GST, which may have masked the varying individual strain effects on delinquency. Using the longitudinal data of 3,449 South Korean adolescents from the Korea Youth Panel Survey (KYPS) and structural equation modeling techniques, the current study aims to address these important gaps by examining the dynamic relationships among five individual types of subjective strains, anger, four potential conditioning factors, and delinquency, so as to more clearly articulate pathways from strains to delinquent externalization. A number of interesting findings have emerged from the current study. Firstly, not all five types of strain were influential on the delinquency. Only the parental and material strains were strong predictors of future delinquency for South Korean adolescents. Secondly, findings concerning the mediation hypothesis revealed that anger served as a significant intervening factor in the relations between strain and delinquency across all strain models. Lastly, a series of multi-group analyses - aimed to not only examine the moderating effects of various potential factors on the strain-delinquency link, but also to identify their locations of moderation - revealed no support for the GST conditioning hypothesis. Theoretical implications, future inquiry considerations, and policy suggestions are discussed with respect to the findings of current investigations on major tenets of GST