The Role of Life Satisfaction in Predicting Youth Violence and Offending

What is it about?

Life satisfaction in adolescence has been shown to protect against numerous negative outcomes (e.g. substance-use, sexual risk-taking), but has yet to be directly connected to youth violence and offending. To address this gap in the literature, we explored the relationship between youth violence/offending and life satisfaction among both community and at-risk youth. Our findings suggest that high life satisfaction is associated with decreased offending and violence for both at-risk and community youth. Further, among community youth this relationship holds, even when accounting for established risk factors such as past history of offending, substance use, and demographic variables. Our analyses suggest that the positive influence of life satisfaction on adolescent violence and offending is greater for youth high in antisocial character traits, and that substance use plays a critical role in this relationship: In particular, youth who are unsatisfied with their lives are more likely to engage in substance use, which in turn increases risk for offending.

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Why is it important?

This work provides a novel contribution to the literature in that it directly addresses an the impact of a salient protective factor (life satisfaction) on youth violence and offending behavior. In examining the problem from this perspective we take a strengths based (as opposed to deficit focused) position in understanding factors that contribute to maladaptive outcomes in youth.