A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the true score (population) correlation for Hirschi's social bonding theory and juvenile delinquency. Findings revealed considerable inconsistencies in indicators that measure the four social bonding variables---attachment, involvement, commitment and belief. The true score correlations for the overall model and also for the models using gender as a moderator ranged from -.08 (attachment analyzed for males only) to -.33 (belief). The explained variance in the distribution of correlations for the meta-analysis ranged from 2.41 (belief) to 26.26 (for the overall model for females only, which means there was considerable (as much as 97.59 per cent) unexplained variance, pointing to the likelihood of one or more moderators of the relationship between social bonding and juvenile delinquency.
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