Adolescent deviant behavior: Multiple contingency table analyses of overlap between behaviors

This was a study of 1,093 adolescents from six public high schools designed to test a deviance syndrome perspective by examining how much overlap there is between certain deviant behaviors, and by investigating whether the same theoretical elements account for variance in those behaviors. A log-linear analysis of suicide attempts, alcohol use, use of marijuana, and number of sexual partners indicated a significant interaction (or overlap) between the latter three forms of deviant behavior. However, an examination of the configuration of data according to deviant behaviors indicated that the actual numerical overlap was less impressive than the statistical significance or syndrome argument would imply. The present study also provided logistic and OLS regression analyses of many elements of social control theory. Those analyses revealed that few of the theoretical factors were consistent predictors of the various forms of problem behavior. Social work implications of the findings were discussed.