Parental Disengagement in Childhood and Adolescent Male Gun Carrying.

• NCJ Number: 254349
• Journal: Pediatrics Volume: 143 Issue: 4 Dated: 2019
• Author(s): Jordan Beardslee; Meagan Docherty; Vevette J. Yang; Dustin Pardini
• Date Published: 2019
• Length: 19 pages
• Grant Number(s): 96-MU-FX-0012
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the association between parental disengagement in childhood and adolescent gun carrying and determined whether this association was linked to externalizing problems and affiliation with delinquent peers during early adolescence.

Abstract

The sample consisted of 503 boys (55.7 percent African American, 40.6 percent White, 3.7 percent other) recruited from first-grade classrooms in Pittsburgh public schools. Multi-informant assessments were conducted regularly (semiannually then annually) from approximately ages 7.5 to 20 years. Latent factors were constructed by using parent-reported parental disengagement (i.e., poor parental involvement, poor parent-son communication, poor parent-son relationship quality) collected from ages 7.5 to 10 years, youth-reported peer delinquency from ages 10.5 to 13 years, and teacher-reported externalizing problems from ages 10.5 to 13 years. The outcome was youth-reported gun carrying from ages 14 to 20 years. Twenty percent of individuals sampled reported carrying a gun during adolescence. Childhood parental disengagement was significantly associated with adolescent gun carrying ( = .22; 95 percent confidence interval: 0.08 to 0.36). Furthermore, the association between parental disengagement and gun carrying was partially mediated through peer delinquency and externalizing problems during early adolescence. The two indirect paths accounted for 29 percent of the total effect of parental disengagement. Boys exposed to poorer parental engagement during childhood are more likely to affiliate with delinquent peers and exhibit externalizing problems during early adolescence, which (in turn) increases their risk of carrying a firearm in later adolescence. This suggests that gun violence prevention efforts with children should work to enhance aspects of parental engagement. The overall conclusion is that boys exposed to poorer parental engagement during childhood are more likely to affiliate with delinquent peers and exhibit externalizing problems during early adolescence, which (in turn) increases their risk of carrying a firearm in later adolescence. This suggests that gun violence prevention efforts with children should work to enhance aspects of parental engagement. (publisher abstract modified)