Endnotes

¹ More information about the NLSCY is available in Survey Overview .
² Logistic regression techniques are used in this analysis instead of ordinary least squares regression because the outcome variables of interest contain only two categories: committing at least one delinquent act in the past year versus committing no delinquent acts in the past year.
³ The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) for the property-related delinquency scale is  = .75. Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of internal consistency, based on the average correlation between items. It is assumed that items are positively correlated with each other because they are attempting to measure a common construct; therefore, a Cronbach’s alpha close to 1 indicates perfect consistency between items.
⁴ The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) for the violent delinquency scale is  = .70.
⁵ The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) for the school commitment scale is  = .73.
⁶ The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha) for the victimization scale is  = .67.