Delinquency During Puberty as a Biosocial Behavior: Time-Varying Effects of Social Contexts on Girls’ Delinquency in South Korea

Abstract

Using Time-Varying Effect Model (TVEM) to analyze five waves of nationally representative South Korean panel data, from Grades 8 to 12, this study investigates how the effects of delinquent peers, parental care, and compliance with school rules on delinquency likelihood change across adolescence for girls with early versus late pubertal timing. The results reveal complex nonlinear trajectories that differ by puberty group: delinquent peer influence becomes more pronounced for late maturers after Grade 10, parental care consistently suppresses delinquency only for early maturers, and school rule compliance relates negatively to delinquency in late maturers but positively in early maturers. The findings challenge the partial application of the maturity gap hypothesis to early maturers only, highlighting how both early and late maturers experience strain from off-time development but negotiate it differently through shifting interactions with key social contexts over adolescence.