Classifying Patterns of Delinquent Behaviours and Experiences of Victimization: A Latent Class Analysis among Children

Background: Delinquent behaviours among youth harms health and social trajectories, and public health broadly. Despite evidence that engaging in and being victimized by delinquent behaviours often cluster, most studies have examined the clustering of delinquent behaviours or victimization experiences independently. Information on patterns of co-occurrence is crucial to design appropriate interventions. Objectives: The primary purpose was to identify latent classes of delinquency and victimization among youth from the general population. The secondary purpose of this study was to examine associations of individual, household, and classroom covariates on latent class membership. Method: The sample consisted of 1948 youth aged 4-14 from the 2014 Ontario Child Health Study. Latent class analysis was performed to identify patterns of delinquent behaviours and experiences of victimization, while multinomial regression was conducted to examine how covariates were associated with likelihood of class membership. Results: The analysis identified four classes of youth in the OCHS sample: (1) low delinquency and low victimization (75.4%), (2) moderate victimization and moderate school delinquency (7.8%), (3) high victimization and moderate home delinquency (11.8%), and high victimization and high home and school delinquency (5.0%). Youth sex, household income, ethnicity, parental education, and parental depression were associated with differences in class membership. Conclusions: Approximately one quarter of youth engaged in delinquent behaviours, with patterns of co-occurrence suggesting these youth engage in delinquent behaviours and are victimized by delinquent behaviours across environments. Interventions should approach youth delinquency and victimization as a spectrum of clustered behaviours and experiences in these environments.