The Relationship Between Parenting and Delinquency: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis of 161 published and unpublished manuscripts was conducted to determine whether the association between parenting and delinquency exists and what the magnitude of this linkage is. The strongest links were found for parental monitoring, psychological control, and negative aspects of support such as rejection and hostility, accounting for up to 11% of the variance in delinquency. Several effect sizes were moderated by parent and child gender, child age, informant on parenting, and delinquency type, indicating that some parenting behaviors are more important for particular contexts or subsamples.Although both dimensions of warmth and support seem to be important, surprisingly very few studies focused on parenting styles. Furthermore, fewer than 20% of the studies focused on parenting behavior of fathers, despite the fact that the effect of poor support by fathers was larger than poor maternal support, particularly for sons. Implications for theory and parenting are discussed.Keywords Child-rearing . Delinquency . Meta-analysis . Moderators . Development Parents of young people are often blamed for the delinquent behavior of their children. In some courts parents are even penalized for the antisocial conduct of their children (e.g., Bessant and Hil 1998;Drakeford 1996;Dundes 1994). Although lay as well as scholarly theories assume that a link between parenting and delinquency exists, clear conclusions concerning the magnitude of this link are difficult to draw. An important reason for this difficulty is the heterogeneity of the studies and their findings in this field of research. Studies vary on the kinds of delinquency and parenting dimensions that are investigated, on how these constructs are measured, and on the populations from which the samples are drawn. In a series of meta-analyses we summarize and integrate previous findings on the link between parenting and delinquency. The first goal is to analyze which parenting dimensions are related to delinquency and the second is to identify moderators that affect the parenting-delinquency association.Research on family antecedents and correlates of delinquency is of direct importance to both theory and practice. Interest in the family was apparent in early theories on social disorganization (Gove and Crutchfield 1982;Van Voorhis et al. 1988), and in the social bond model of Hirschi (1969). Other theories such as those of

Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire - versão portuguesa de autorrelato

“…ex., Hoeve et al, 2009;Kawabata et al, 2011;Sartaj & Aslam, 2010;Simons & Conger, 2007;Spera, 2005), e considerando a escassa existência de instrumentos que avaliem os EP validados para Portugal, o QDEP deve, assim, continuar a ser objecto de estudo, de forma a confi rmar a validade do modelo proposto e a melhorar a sua fi abilidade (p. ex., baixo nível de consistência interna da subescala EP Permissivo).…”

“…O interesse nos EP deriva sobretudo das evidências empíricas que, ao longo de quatro décadas de investigação, demonstraram a associação dos EP a vários aspectos do ajustamento sócio-emocional da criança, bem como da psicopatologia infantil (por exemplo, Caron, Weiss, Harris, & Catron, 2006;Hoeve et al, 2009;Kawabata, Alink, Tseng, Ijzendoorn, & Crick, 2011;McLeod, Wood, & Weisz, 2007;Sartaj & Aslam, 2010;Simons & Conger, 2007).…”

Advancing a Biopsychosocial and Contextual Model of Sleep in Adolescence: A Review and Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Moreover, parents of adolescents with ADHD are less likely to provide consistent and clear structure surrounding house-rules and routines such as bedtime (Deault 2010), and as reviewed above, adolescents without consistent parent-set bedtimes obtain less sleep and have greater daytime sleepiness than adolescents with parent-set bedtimes (National Sleep Foundation 2006;Noble et al 2012;Short et al 2011). Further, parenting behaviors such as monitoring and rejection/hostility are associated with delinquency (Hoeve et al 2009), affiliation with deviant peers (Claes et al 2005;Galambos et al 2003), and substance use (Burke et al 2001;Dishion et al 2004;Marshal et al 2003), which in turn is likely to impact sleep functioning. There is recent evidence to suggest that parents' knowledge of their adolescent's activities and whereabouts is associated with less delinquency and substance use for all teens but may be especially critical for teens with ADHD (Walther et al 2012).…”

The transactional process between the relationships with caregivers and children's externalizing behavior

“…Overall, a relationship characterized for instance by emotional support and warmth has been related to positive outcomes in children (Boeldt et al, 2012). Conversely, a relationship characterized for instance by criticism and rejection has been repeatedly identified as a risk factor for developing EB (Hoeve et al, 2009). The main objective of the current study is to test the transactional relations between QR with caregivers (mothers, fathers and teachers) and children's EB as a plausible mechanism underlying the development of behavioral problems.…”