A 3-year longitudinal study of Puerto Rican youth (who were tenth graders during the first year of the study) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sought to identify determinants of decisions to remain in school or drop out, and to investigate delinquency among this population. Among girls, the study found no correlation between delinquency and dropping out, although dropping out was strongly correlated with pregnancy. The data indicated that mothers' influence on their daughters tended to socialize females away from delinquency. The potential Puerto Rican female dropout was likely to have repeated a grade, to be unmotivated, and to come from an educationally unsupportive home, but tended to be overlooked as a problematic student. Among boys, a significant positive relationship was found between dropping out and delinquency. Tenth grade dropouts generally came from less economically able families than eleventh grade dropouts. Compared to non-delinquent dropouts, delinquent dropouts used drugs more frequently, failed in school more often, reported more friends in trouble with the law, and had parents who knew little about their sons' friends. The findings support a theoretical model that sees delinquency and decisions to drop out of school as being influenced by the family and the institutions that affect it: schools, peers, employment, church, and health services. (Author/MJL)