Strain, Social Bonds, Deviant Peers and Aggression Among Chinese Adolescents: An Empirical Test and Extension of General Strain Theory

General Strain Theory (GST) has been widely applied to understanding deviant behaviors in Western contexts. Nevertheless, compared with the substantial body of research on the direct effect of strain on deviance, empirical evidence for its mediating and moderating mechanisms remains limited and inconsistent, particularly in non-Western contexts. This gap constrains both the cross-cultural generalizability of GST and its capacity to account for the full spectrum of deviant behaviors. Drawing on retrospective single-wave self-report data from 4497 participants in a Chinese college student sample, this study examined the interrelationships among strain, negative emotion, social bonds, deviant peers, and aggression. The findings indicate that negative emotion fully mediated the relationship between strain and aggression. Social bonds buffered the effect of strain on negative emotion, but strengthened the effect of negative emotion on aggression, with the belief dimension emerging as the key factor underlying this divergence. Deviant peers also significantly intensified the effect of strain on negative emotion. These findings underscore the importance of reducing negative emotional responses and clarifying the mechanisms through which social bonds and deviant peers shape the process by which strain is translated into aggression.