NCJ Number
217540
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2007 Pages: 51-67
Date Published
January 2007
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between family structure and juvenile delinquency.
Abstract
The overall results lend additional support for the effects of family process, such as maternal attachment and to some degree, maternal supervision as more significant predictors of delinquent behavior among youth than family structure or family type. Maternal attachment was consistently found to be a more important predictor of delinquency than family structure, reason why a family was a single-parent household, or lack of economic resources. Even though these findings were somewhat unexpected, it should not be surprising that the quality of the parent-child bond might play an important role in the development of delinquent behavior. Despite the number of studies, several issues regarding the relationship between family structure and delinquent behavior remain unresolved. This study sought to address this literary weakness by using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine in greater detail the extent to which family type, family process variables, and economic factors impacted participation in nonserious and serious delinquency. Specifically, the study considered whether differences existed in the relationship between family types, such as intact, divorce, death, or never married and delinquency, and if this association was mediated by family process, such as attachment, supervision, and control and/or economic variables, such as membership in the underclass and maternal employment status. Tables, appendix, notes, and references