Parental Control and Adolescent Delinquency Based on Parallel Process Latent Growth Curve Modeling

Abstract

Although ample evidence demonstrates parental influences on delinquent behavior in adolescent years, few studies have examined how change in adolescent delinquency and change in parental behavior are related to each other, particularly in late adolescence. This study utilized survey data collected over three high school years (N = 3074 Grade 10 students; mean age = 15.57, SD = 0.74 at Time 1) to examine how change trajectory of adolescent-reported delinquency is related to change trajectory of adolescent perceived parental behavioral and psychological control using parallel process growth curve modeling. Results revealed that adolescent delinquency level was negatively associated with both parents’ behavioral control and positively associated with parents’ psychological control at Time 1 (Grade 10). However, adolescent delinquency increased in parallel with decreased parental behavioral control, but not a change in psychological control. Initial paternal behavioral control positively predicted a linear increase slope of adolescent delinquency while initial adolescent delinquency level also positively predicted a linear decrease slope of paternal behavioral control. These results highlight the parallel development of parents’ behavioral control and children’s delinquent behavior and delineate the reciprocal influence between paternal behavioral control and adolescent children’s delinquency.

Internet Addiction and Emotional and Behavioral Maladjustment in Mainland Chinese Adolescents: Cross-Lagged Panel Analyses

“…Such changes further result in impairments in adolescents’ emotional and behavioral capacity, leading to ineffective coping and developmental problems ( Fayazi and Hasani, 2017 ; Yu and Zhou, 2021 ). Meanwhile, excessive Internet usage inevitably reduces face-to-face interactions with parents and peers, which may impair relationships with peers and family members and reduce social support ( Wang et al, 2018 ; Xin et al, 2018 ), all of which in turn damper adolescent healthy development but lead to maladjustment in multiple aspects ( Wang et al, 2018 ; Shek and Zhu, 2019 ; Zhu and Shek, 2021a ).…”

“…Nevertheless, it can be argued that IA, depression, and delinquency are complex developmental disorders shaped by multiple ecological factors and causal pathways. For example, these developmental problems may be affected by individual (e.g., positive youth development attributes) and contextual factors (e.g., parenting and family functioning) simultaneously ( Shek et al, 2018b ; Zhou et al, 2020 ; Zhu and Shek, 2021a , b ; Dou and Shek, 2021 ), which may lead to the associations among IA, depression, and delinquency. In this case, effective prevention and intervention youth programs may need to focus more on promoting adolescents’ competence and skills in a holistic manner instead of only targeting at eliminating one specific disorder, including IA ( Shek et al, 2018a , 2020 ; Chung et al, 2019 ; Shek, 2019 ).…”

“…We tested the above hypotheses among junior secondary school students (i.e., early adolescents) who have to face growing developmental challenges in different domains, such as academic stress, peer pressure, conflicts with parents, difficulties in managing emotions, and so on. It is widely agreed that IA and emotional and behavioral maladjustment (e.g., depression and delinquency) are more common in adolescents than in children, and there is a steady increase in IA, depression, and delinquency over time among some early adolescents ( Houghton et al, 2018 ; Shore et al, 2018 ; Yu and Shek, 2018 ; Zhu and Shek, 2021a ). Thus, it is theoretically and practically (e.g., early intervention) meaningful to address the research gaps regarding the relationship between IA and depression and delinquency among this group of students.…”

“…As for delinquency, while adolescent boys have been found to typically report more delinquent behavior than do adolescent girls ( Kofler et al, 2011 ; Stockdale and Coyne, 2020 ; Zhu and Shek, 2021a ), gender differences in IA-delinquency association remain unknown. Some scholars contended that compared with girls, boys are more likely to act out stresses, difficulties, or unhappy feelings through deviant and rule-breaking behavior such as delinquency ( Kofler et al, 2011 ).…”

Parental and School Influences on Character Attributes Among Chinese Adolescents

“…First, although parental and school factors were treated as predictors of adolescents' character attributes, the inference of the causality is limited by the cross-sectional design. It is possible that adolescents' development also influences the surrounding contextual factors, such as parenting strategies and teacherstudent relationship (49,(80)(81)(82). For example, adolescents' selfcontrol (related to self-discipline) predicts subsequent parenting in a recent meta-analysis (81).…”