Reconsidering Labels and Primary Deviance: False Appraisals, Reflected Appraisals, and Delinquency Onset

We assess Matsueda’s reflected appraisals model of delinquency across groups of previously delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. We hypothesize that the reflected appraisals process, which entails incorporating informal appraisals by significant others into self-identities, differs across delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. We estimate cross-group models of the reflected appraisals process among delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents using the data (National Youth Survey) and methodology (structural equation modeling) from Matsueda’s original research. The informal labeling and identity processes articulated in the reflected appraisals model better explain delinquency continuity than delinquency onset. Notable differences across previously delinquent and nondelinquent groups are found with respect to the influence of parental appraisals on reflected appraisals and with respect to the influence of race on parental and reflected appraisals. Informal labeling predicts both continuity and onset of delinquency. Continuity results from delinquent adolescents incorporating troublemaking appraisals into their self-identities and living up to those labels. Identity processes prove unimportant for linking troublemaking appraisals to delinquency among falsely appraised adolescents. Future research is needed to assess the possibility that false appraisals produce delinquency through processes articulated in general strain and defiance theories. We also discuss avenues for future research on race, identities, and delinquency