Abstract

Deviance in a Middle-Class Community SAGE Publications, Inc.1970DOI: 10.1177/002071527001100204 C. Michael Lanphier York University, Toronto, Canada Joseph E. Faulkner Pennsylvania State University, State College, U.S.A. A FAIRLY LARGE BODY of information has accumulated on the social antecedents and correlates of adolescent deviance among youths in lower socio-economic areas and among adjudicated offender. Implications from these studies for youths from other socio-economic backgrounds and for non- adjudicated youths are obvious. Research which replicates the studies or adapts them in a middle-class setting are far less numerous. It is an open question whether middle-class settings will reveal similar findings. An even more important consideration from a viewpoint of social psychology may be phrased in the following manner: whatever relation between class and deviant behaviour may exist, what are the predispositions which underlie deviance in a setting that provides all the necessities and most of the amenities of conventional life among adolescents? This present research investigates the applicability of certain deviant behaviour theories emerging from prior studies conducted in working- and lower-class settings. Specifically, the inquiry revolves about the relationship of self-conception, viewed in terms of self-esteem, to deviant behaviour. It is reasoned that the variation in self-conception would appear strongly