To date, research on multigenerational aspects of delinquency has been devoted to transmission from parents to offspring, largely ignoring long-term invariance of criminological theories. This study uses multigenerational data from the most recent waves of the National Youth Survey Family Study to test a general model of delinquency across two samples of adolescents of similar ages, separated by more than 25 years. Original respondents were compared with their adolescent offspring using identical models based on a partial general strain approach. Direct and indirect effects of strains on delinquency were generally consistent across generations. The discussion of the findings centers on general theoretical and methodological issues associated with a relatively unexplored avenue for understanding crime and delinquency.
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