Global Social Outcasting Examined through a Stress-Strain Paradigm
Abstract
This dissertation integrates the stress process paradigm with General Strain Theory and applies them to the adolescent experiences of ostracism, rejection, and interpersonal exclusion, termed referred to here as outcasting. Taking a stress proliferation approach, it is proposed in the current study that the outcasting adolescents experience in one social domain of their lives penetrates into other social domains, creating the perception of widespread outcasting throughout their social network, or Global Social Outcasting. Global Social Outcasting, then, is the catalyst in a stress-strain paradigm that triggers the experience of negative emotions, anger and anxiety in the current study. These negative emotions are proposed to be associated with nonviolent and violent delinquency as outcomes. This study uses data from the Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigeneration Study with sample size of 2,923 males and 2,839 females all aged 11 to 17 years. Using a confirmatory factor analysis approach to variable construction, Global Social Outcasting is a second-ordered latent construct that’s influence is examined through gendered structural equation models followed by multiple group analysis to investigate differences in genders. Comparing gender differences in emotional responses to Global Social Outcasting, indicates higher total levels of negative feelings reported for males, compared to females. Global Social Outcasting experienced by males is positively associated with nonviolent and violent delinquency indirectly through anger, but despite effects being in the expected direction, there is no such significant association for female adolescents. Global Social Outcasting was not expected to have an influence on delinquency through anxiety. However, results indicate a significant indirect influence of Global Social Outcasting on nonviolent delinquency through anxiety in a negative direction, suggesting that anxiety may act as a buffer to adolescents engaging in nonviolent delinquency, but this association is only significant for males when examining violent delinquency as the outcome.
Subject
ostracismrejection
social exclusion
delinquency
labeling
stigma
stress
strain
General Strain Theory
emotions
Citation
Abel, Richard Donald (2020). Global Social Outcasting Examined through a Stress-Strain Paradigm. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /191506.