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Objectives: The Australian Self-Reported Delinquency Scale has been a widely adopted measure of delinquency, yet requires updating to ensure appropriate content coverage and consistency with contemporary language. The aim of this research was to revise the Australian Self-Reported Delinquency Scale and derive a measure of contemporary delinquent behaviour among Australian adolescents with satisfactory psychometric properties. Method: In Study 1, we conducted focus groups with 16 adolescents and 20 professionals (youth workers, police officers, school teachers/counsellors) in Canberra to update items included in the measure. Contents of the scale were revised accordingly, yielding a 56-item checklist of contemporary delinquent activities. In Study 2, 312 students (57.7% male, aged 13-17) from government and independent schools in Canberra completed the 56-item Delinquency Checklist. Results: Subsequent item analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a 30-item Australian Self-Reported Delinquency Scale-Revised with eight subscales (Driving/Vehicle, Theft, Cheat, Disturb, Fight, Drugs) including two new subscales (Alcohol and Media), with evidence of reliability and validity. Conclusions: The revision of the Australian Self-Reported Delinquency Scale-Revised, complemented by a 56-item Delinquency Checklist, may prove useful in educational, rehabilitation, and research settings, and aid in evaluating clinical interventions with increased specificity.

The present study examined whether a new psychosocial control model of youth problem behaviours, including additional variables of sensation seeking and peer risk-taking behaviour, could be expanded to explain delinquency in early and mid-late adolescence, and emerging early-and mid-young adulthood. We also explored the possible mediating role of peer risktaking behaviours on conventional social control risk factors of parent attachment, school connectedness, and perceived seriousness of risk-taking behaviours with delinquency. Using a recently updated Australian self-report delinquency measure that can capture undetected antisocial behaviour among both adolescents and adults, a sample of 329 secondary school students (age groups 13-14, and 15-17, 50.6% female) and 334 university students (age groups 18-20, and 21-24, 68.4% female) in Canberra, Australia participated. The new psychosocial control model explained variance in delinquency with medium to large effect sizes, and beyond the original psychosocial control variables in all four age cohorts. Peer risk-taking behaviour explained the largest proportion of variance across all four age groups; its mediating role was partially supported. Impulsivity predicted delinquency among 13 to 20 years olds as did sensation seeking among 15 to 24 year olds, suggesting different, yet overlapping influences on developmental trajectories of delinquency.

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