School Engagement as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Temperament and Recidivism Among Adolescents in Community-Based Juvenile Justice Services

• Published date: 01 July 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/15412040241231900
• Author: Joshua A. Lang,Kevin T. Wolff,Michael T. Baglivio
• Date: 01 July 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

2024, Vol. 22(3) 182–206

© The Author(s) 2024

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/15412040241231900

journals.sagepub.com/home/yvj

School Engagement as a

Mediator of the Relationship

Between Temperament and

Recidivism Among Adolescents

in Community-Based Juvenile

Justice Services

Joshua A. Lang

1

, Kevin T. Wolff

1

, and Michael T. Baglivio

1



Abstract

Prior research has established the relationship between temperament and recidivism, yet the

mechanisms that underlie this relationship have yet to be explored. School engagement rep-

resents one possible mechanism and has been shown to be related to both recidivism and

temperament. The current study expands research on DeLisi and Vaughn’s temperament theory

by utilizing data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice to determine if school en-

gagement effectively mediates the relationship between temperament and continued delinquency.

Results provide evidence of a signif‌icant mediation effect, controlling for a host of potential

confounding variables. Findings suggest that approximately one-third of the total effect of

temperament on juvenile recidivism is mediated by school engagement issues, yet a signif‌icant

direct effect of temperament remains. Policy and intervention implications are brief‌ly considered.

Further research is required to determine additional mediators to better understand the pro-

cesses by which temperament impacts reoffending.

Keywords

justice-involved youth, temperament, school engagement, recidivism, juvenile justice

Introduction

Criminologists continue to ponder the best explanations for what factors inf‌luence a person to

commit crime. The most common arguments tend to state that criminal behavior is either learned,

induced through strain, or the result of a lack of control. The introduction of the temperament-

based theory of anti-social behavior by DeLisi and Vaughn (2014) created a new direction for

1

Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College, New York, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Joshua A. Lang, Department of Criminal Justice, John Jay College, 524 W 59th St, New York, NY 10019-1093, USA.

Email: jlang@jjay.cuny.edu

research within the f‌ield through its bio-psycho-social approach to criminal behavior. While

temperament has been used to explain behavior dating back to Hippocrates, DeLisi and Vaughn’s

(2014) temperament-based theory (Temperament Theory) is the f‌irst criminological theory to

utilize temperament as the exclusive explanatory factor for criminal behavior. They def‌ine

temperament as the innate tendency that encompasses how an individual experiences the en-

vironment and regulates their responses to that environment. In other words, temperament

captures inherent patterns of both behavioral and emotional reactivity.

Previous tests of temperament theory have identif‌ied a clear relationship between diff‌icult

temperament and juvenile recidivism (measured as rearrest and readjudication) both as the

primary predictor (Baglivio et al., 2016;DeLisi et al., 2018;DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014;Garofalo &

Velotti, 2017;Wolff, Baglivio, et al., 2016;Wolff, Spriggs, et al., 2021) and as a mediator in-

tersecting the relationship between traumatic brain injuries and recidivism (Veeh et al., 2018).

These f‌indings demonstrate the eff‌icacy of temperament theory, specif‌ically its ability to predict

juvenile recidivism, but they have yet to explore the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The

present paper aims to begin to address this literature gap by introducing school engagement (or

lack thereof) as a potential mediating mechanism between temperament and juvenile recidivism.

As operationalized here, school engagement encompasses the factors of exclusionary school

discipline, school performance, attendance, and conduct problems. School engagement is a

valuable mechanism to evaluate further, given its reliance on a person’s ability to regulate their

behaviors and emotions as well as previous studies illuminating its relationship with juvenile

offending. The current study hypothesizes that school engagement will partially mediate the

established relationship between temperament and juvenile recidivism. We test this hypothesis

using juvenile justice data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Lastly, we conclude by

discussing the implications of this study, including potential educational and juvenile justice

policy recommendations and directions for future research.

Literature Review

Temperament is not a new concept; its history dates to the days of Hippocrates and his four humors

typology of temperament (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014). The four humors, melancholic, sanguine,

choleric, and phlegmatic, laid the groundwork for temperament as it is understood today.

Temperament has been extensively studied within the f‌ields of developmental and personality

psychology.

Even after centuries of temperament research, temperament has no universal def‌inition.

Goldsmith and colleagues (1987) showcase this by highlighting four approaches to temperament

that def‌ine temperament as aspects of personality, behavior, or a biological trait. These def‌initions

collectively view temperament as how someone regulates their behaviors and how they perceive

and react to their respective environments.

This all helps explain DeLisi and Vaughn’s (2014) def‌inition that temperament, broadly, is an

innate tendency that guides how a person experiences their environment and regulates how they

respond to that environment. It encompasses traits such as activity level, adaptability, persistence,

and mood. Temperament is believed to have a biological basis, emerging early in life and

inf‌luencing an individual’s interactions with their environment. While temperament provides a

foundational framework for personality development, it is also subject to environmental inf‌lu-

ences and can shape a person’s responses to various life experiences.

Temperament has been tangentially mentioned in past criminological theories and past research

(Agnew, 1992;Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990;Moff‌itt, 1993;Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985).

Temperament had never been the focus of criminological research until DeLisi and Vaughn(2014)

utilized extensive developmental and personality psychology research to craft their theory of

Lang et al. 183