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Article
Early Puberty, School Context, and Delinquency Among South Korean Girls
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
  • Hye-Sook Park, Honam University
  • Ilhong Yun, Chosun University
  • Anthony Walsh, Boise State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2017
Abstract

Compared with chronological age, criminologists have paid less attention to the biological sense of age typically expressed by pubertal development. Studies that have examined pubertal timing’s effects on delinquency have almost exclusively been conducted in Western countries using mostly White samples. To our knowledge, no study has ever examined this issue in the Asian context. The current study is the first attempt to bridge this research gap by examining the association among menarcheal timing, the sex composition of schools, and delinquency in a representative sample of 1,108 ninth-grade girls in South Korea. The results show that significant association between early menarche and delinquency exists only in mixed-sex schools but not in all-girls schools. In addition, the significant linkage between early menarche and delinquency in mixed-sex schools is mediated by delinquent peer associations.

Citation Information
Hye-Sook Park, Ilhong Yun and Anthony Walsh. "Early Puberty, School Context, and Delinquency Among South Korean Girls" International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (2017)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/anthony_walsh/143/