Like Parent Like Child? The Role of Delayed Childrearing in Breaking the Link Between Parent's Offending and Their Children's Antisocial Behavior

• NCJ Number: 249421
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 32 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2015 Pages: 410-444
• Author(s): Alan J. Lizotte; Matthew D. Phillips; Marvin D. Krohn; Terence P. Thornberry; Shawn B. Bushway; Nicole M. Schmidt
• Date Published: May 2015
• Length: 35 pages
• Grant Number(s): 86-JN-CX-0007, 96-MU-FX-0014, 2004-MU-FX-0062
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the impact of parents' history of violent offending, their age at first birth, and the interaction of the two on their adolescent children's violent behavior.

Abstract

The study shows that the particular shape of the parents' propensity for offending over time can interact with their age at first birth to protect their children from delinquency. The study examined these relationships for children at 6 and 10 years of age, finding that for some groups, delaying childrearing can insulate children from their parents' offending. Intergenerational longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study were used to estimate parental trajectories of offending from their early adolescence through early adulthood. (Publisher abstract modified)