Arianne Lovett The purpose of this research paper is to examine if bad parenting styles lead to criminal behavior in children. Some researchers have showed a positive association with bad parenting styles having a link to criminal behavior. Other researchers examine relationships between the participant’s mother and how a bad relationship with a parent can lead to criminal behavior. In this study, researchers (Walker-Barnes, & Mason) examine the relationship of gang involvement and the rates of delinquent activity and substance use among gang members.
Studies have showed that there is a significant relationship between gang membership and family processes. This study will not only uncover gang membership but the influence of parenting behavior and the three forms of adolescent problem behavior such as major delinquency, minor delinquency, and substance use. To conduct the study researchers used 300 ninth grade students to participate in this study ranging from the ages thirteen to eighteen years old. The students involved in this study were from thirteen regular ninth grade classes from a public school in Miami.
For this study, researchers used cluster sampling. The sampling technique for the study included was 53. 7% Hispanic (predominantly Cuban), 25. 2% Black (African-American and Afro-Caribbean), and 20. 6% other (predominantly White). Over half (59. 7%) of the students came from two-parent families; 78% of those included both biological parents. Approximately one-third (31. 7%) of the students lived with their mother only, in 11 cases (3. 7%) the father was the sole primary caregiver, and in eight cases (2. 7%) it was another relative such as a grandparent or aunt.
This allows researchers to get not only research from a home that includes a mother or father but anyone that is the caregiver of the student. The research design for this particular study is a multiple interrupted time series because researchers collected data at eight time points. At the beginning, students took a survey about themselves which took about fifty minutes. After that participants took follow up surveys every three weeks for the remainder of the school year. Out of the three hundred students about 80% completed five or more follow up surveys.
For confidentiality purposes, students were asked to create a password for their surveys. The passwords that the participants created had no linkage to their names or identity. In the beginning, participants were asked a series of questions regarding parenting behavior. The four measures used in this study were behavioral control, psychological control, parental warmth, and mother-adolescent conflict. Each follow up survey was measured adolescent behavior problems such as gang involvement, delinquency and substance use. Several modeling procedures used to model change over time.
According to the article, “A considerable advantage of this study is that it utilizes multiple assessments of gang involvement and adolescent problem behavior, allowing us to more directly address the question of the degree to which gang involvement affects delinquency and substance use and the extent to which parenting affects the magnitude of this relationship”(WarnerBarnes & Mason). Researchers measured psychological control and parental warmth by self reports that included the participant’s perceptions of their parents/ guardians behavior.
Conflict between the participants with him/her mother was measured through a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 20 true and false questions regarding the quality of the mother-child relationship. Adolescent gang involvement was measured by survey questions like “whether they had engaged in six types of gang-related behavior”? Lastly, Adolescent delinquency and substance use was used by asking participants to rate how frequent they engage in delinquency behavior and substance use. Results showed that parenting behavior has a significant impact between minor delinquency and gang involvement.
Reports also show that gang involvement is a highly significant, positive predictor of substance use. Although reports showed a significant impact on parenting behaviors, conflict showed little to no impact on delinquency. According to the study, “Three of the four parenting behaviors examined in this study were found to have some modest impact upon the strength of the relationship a gang involvement and one or more of the adolescent problem behaviors examined in this study”. Mckoy & Cui examine the association between parental control, delinquency and young adult engaging in criminal behavior.
Studies show that delinquency peak in adolescences. Although, adolescents engage in delinquency and other criminal acts; majority of them will not become career criminals. Like many other studies, this study will add to the literature concerning the relationship between the three factors. In this study, researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The sampling technique consisted of a multistage, stratified, cluster sampling design was used in the Add Health study. The study consisted of students in grades 7-12. Researchers did in home interviews to collect their data as well.
Researchers used different waves to collect and measure data. Wave 1 delinquency was measured at Wave I for adolescents and criminal behavior at Wave III for young adults. Lack of parental control was measured using six items, asking the adolescents whether their parents let them make their own decisions about what they do on the weekends like how much they watch television or their curfew on the weekends. In result, research did support their hypothesis and showed that lack of parental control was associated with higher level of delinquency in adolescence.
Researchers also found by conducting this study that parental control play a significant role in adolescent delinquent behavior. Mckoy & Cui also discovered that parent’s college education had a influence on adolescent delinquency. Although, the study indicates that adolescence is a time for transition for both the parents and the kids, reports show that parental control in adolescence is also important because when parents show a high level in parental control and less in warmth this can lead to adolescence engaging in criminal acts.
Researchers like Simons, Lin, Gordon, Brody, and Murry take a different approach by examining how the community differences has impacted parenting practices and conduct control problems. Authors used linear models and sample from African American families to support their hypothesis. The authors base their analysis on 891 African American children and their guardians. The method for this study consist of collecting data from Georgia and lowa. Thee sample of this study consist of 867 African American children (400 boys and 467 girls; 462 in lowa and 405 in Georgia.
The participant’s age ranged from 10-12 years old. Prioir, to the collection o data researchers used a clustersampling technique for the study. They held four focus groups in Georgia and lowa where they critiqueed and examined self report instruments. The groups were asks to fill out a questionnaire regarding conduct problems and punishment. Caregivers were also asked to take a questionnaire regarding the community. The scale ranged from very safe to not safe at all.
The study showed that a significant amount of participants come from low income areas. Thirty five percent of the children reported that there is sometimes fights andweapons in their neighborhood. Other participants reported other criminal acts in their community such as robberies violent arguments. Findings show that there is a positive correlation between parenting stratergies and neighborhood environment. Pittman and Chase-Landsale examined the relationship between parenting style and adolescent outcomes.
The sample of this study consisted of 302 African American adolscnent girls and their mothers who live in low income homes. Data was collected through in home interviews and questionnaires. The sampling technique used for this study is stratified sampling because of the entire populationbeing divided up. Researchers measuered asolscent behavior using 20 items from the National Longitudal Study of Youth. The last way researchers measured delinquency was by asking respondants what activites they engaged within the last 12 months from minor delinquency to major delinlinquency.
Findings showed that pareting styles were related adolescent outcomes such as internalizing behaсiors, work, academics, and sexual experience. Wright and Cullen study whether the control of parental efficiency and delinquent behavior matter. Researchers collected data from the 1992 wave of the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to be analyzed. Since 1979 respondants have been interviewed annually about economic, social, and personal experience. Due to low rates of delinquency, high risks samples have been encouraged.
The initial respondent selection procedure used multistage, stratified cluster sampling designed to include an overrepresentation of minorities. The sampling procedure also differed across each groups. The groups being measured included three dimensions of direct parental controls in the analysis: parental supervision, parental expectations of the child, and parental household rules. Over the past three decades, findings showed that parental efficacy on delinquency are consistent and that delinquency can be reduced by childparent attachment, household rules, and parental supervision.
