(Press-News.org) New research examined the effect of different parenting styles during adolescence on crime among African American men. The study found that parenting styles characterized by little behavioral control placed youth at significant risk for adult crime, even though some of those styles included high levels of nurturance. In contrast, youth whose parents monitored them, were consistent in their parenting, and had high levels of behavioral control were at lowest risk for adult crime.
The study, by researchers at the University of Georgia and Mississippi State University, is forthcoming in Criminology, a publication of the American Society of Criminology.
"We examined parenting styles rather than parenting behaviors, which allowed us to look at various combinations of parenting behaviors--things like warmth, monitoring, and consistent discipline--as they naturally co-occur rather than treating them as though each occurs in a vacuum," explains Leslie Gordon Simons, professor of sociology at the University of Georgia, who led the study.
In their analysis, the authors went beyond how parenting is typically studied to include styles that use corporal punishment. This approach allowed them to examine the impact of corporal punishment in the context in which it takes place (e.g., the presence or absence of nurturance or behavioral control).
The researchers examined longitudinal data on 318 African American men to identify the effects of eight parenting styles in early adolescence on crime in young adulthood. The participants, from a sample initially recruited from Iowa and Georgia, were part of the Family and Community Health Study and were generally representative of African American families in poor, working-class, and middle-class neighborhoods.
The researchers assessed parents' style when youth were 10 and 12 years old and identified eight styles of parenting: authoritative, no-nonsense, authoritarian, vigilant, permissive, lax, neglectful, or abusive. The researchers also measured criminal behavior when youth were 22 and 25 years old. In addition, the study considered how childhood traits (e.g., conduct problems, poor self-control), as well as background and social-environmental variables (e.g., parents' education, community violence), were likely to affect the quality of parenting and youth's antisocial behavior. Researchers also observed the effects of parenting styles mediated by factors that can cause criminal behavior, including antisocial behavior, negative emotions, affiliations with deviant peers, and involvement with the criminal justice system.
The study found that found that parenting styles that involved high levels of behavioral control (e.g., authoritative, authoritarian, no-nonsense) reduced the risk of crime in adulthood. In contrast, the study found that parenting styles with low levels of behavioral control (e.g., abusive, permissive, and lax) significantly increased the risk for crime in adulthood. The harmful consequences of abusive parenting (harsh corporal punishment in the absence of nurturance or behavioral control) are not surprising, but the negative consequences of permissive parenting (which were characterized by indulgent levels of warmth without behavioral control) and lax parenting (which involves high levels of nurturance combined with corporal punishment) suggest that parenting styles lacking monitoring and consistent discipline are more likely to put youth at risk for later criminal behavior, even when parents are warm and nurturing.
"This suggests that parenting with a lot of responsiveness is not, on its own, sufficient to reduce risk for criminal involvement," notes Tara Sutton, assistant professor of sociology at Mississippi State University, who coauthored the study.
The study also found that the effects of corporal punishment on crime depend on the parenting context in which the punishment occurs: It can enhance monitoring and consistency of some parenting styles (e.g., no-nonsense), but in the absence of these behaviors (e.g., lax, abusive parenting styles), it is a risk factor for later participation in crime. The authors note that although some parenting styles that include corporal punishment were effective at deterring adult crime, past research has found that there are costs associated with this this discipline strategy, such as adolescent depression, anxiety, and poor school performance.
The authors identified as a limitation that their study considered only one outcome--crime; studying other outcomes might yield different results. For example, experiencing warm, nurturing parenting as an adolescent may be associated with later success at being a loving romantic partner or father.
Also, while the study considered the impact of parenting during adolescence on criminal behavior during early adulthood, it did not consider the extent to which parenting might moderate the effects of various criminogenic factors (e.g., neighborhood crime), so the authors suggest the study be viewed as a conservative estimate of the effect of parenting on adult crime.
"Most studies on predictors of crime have focused on peer affiliations, neighborhood disadvantage, racial discrimination, and transitions to adulthood, with less attention to the effect of parenting during adolescence on adult criminal behavior," notes Dr. Simons. "Our study suggests that parents, who are the primary socialization agents during their children's formative years, continue to have considerable influence over their adolescents' later criminal behavior."
INFORMATION:
The study was supported by National Institutes of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and National Institute of Drug Abuse.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Sunday church service in Amish country is more than just belting out hymns, reading Bible passages and returning home an hour later to catch a football game or nap.
It's an all-day affair: A host family welcomes church members - between 20 to 40 families - into their home to worship and have fellowship with one another from morning to night. Church is a biweekly activity; each gathering takes place in a member's home and is a key ritual in the Amish community which values in-person communication.
New research from West Virginia University sociologists suggests this face-to-face interaction, coupled with a distrust ...
A new study by Penn State researchers, who looked at emergency room admissions across the U.S. over a recent five-year period in a novel way, suggests that the agriculture industry is even more dangerous than previously believed.
The research revealed that from Jan. 1, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2019, more than 60,000 people were treated in emergency departments for nonfatal, agricultural-related injuries. Significantly, nearly a third of those injured were youths, according to study author Judd Michael, Nationwide Insurance Professor of Agricultural Safety and Health and professor of agricultural and biological engineering, College of Agricultural Sciences.
"This study revealed the true magnitude of the agricultural-related injury problem," he said. "We were slightly ...
Interstate highway systems and networks of dense urban roads typically receive top billing on maps, in infrastructure legislation and in travelers' daily commuting routes. However, more than 80% of all US roads are considered low-volume roads - defined as those that carry fewer than 1000 vehicles per day. According to a new report published by the Ecological Society of America, "The Ecology of Rural Roads: Effects, Management and Research," this less-traveled road network can have an outsized impact on surrounding ecosystems, altering the local hydrology, affecting wildlife populations and shuttling ...
WASHINGTON--More than half of the structures in the contiguous United States are exposed to potentially devastating natural hazards--such as floods, tornadoes and wildfires--according to a new study in the AGU journal Earth's Future, which publishes interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants.
Increasing temperatures and environmental changes contribute to this trend, and the research also shines the light on another culprit: the way humans develop open land, towns and cities.
"We know that climate ...
Large thunderstorms in the Southern Great Plains of the U.S. are some of the strongest on Earth. In recent years, these storms have increased in frequency and intensity, and new research shows that these shifts are linked to climate variability.
Co-authored by Christopher Maupin, Courtney Schumacher and Brendan Roark, all scientists in Texas A&M University's College of Geosciences, along with other researchers, the findings were recently published in END ...
Managing type 2 diabetes typically involves losing weight, exercise and medication, but new research by Dr. Makoto Fukuda and colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine and other institutions suggests that there may be other ways to control the condition through the brain. The researchers have discovered a mechanism in a small area of the brain that regulates whole-body glucose balance without affecting body weight, which suggests the possibility that modulating the mechanism might help keep blood sugar levels in a healthy range.
"A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that the brain is a promising yet unrealized ...
Philadelphia, June 22, 2021 - Vivid photos of the red "COVID arm" rash and reports of facial swelling in patients who have received dermatological fillers after Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccination for COVID-19 may increase patients' concerns about mRNA vaccine side effects and contribute to vaccine hesitancy. A comprehensive review in Clinics in Dermatology, conducted by University of Connecticut School of Medicine researchers and published by Elsevier, confirms that almost all cutaneous reactions are largely self-limited and should not discourage getting the vaccine.
The authors reviewed ...
A research team from Northwestern Engineering and the University of Messina in Italy have developed a new magnetic memory device that could lead to faster, more robust Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Composed of antiferromagnetic materials, the memory technology is immune to external magnetic fields and could one day improve a variety of computing systems, including AI hardware, cryptocurrency mining, and space exploration programs.
A paper outlining the work, titled "Observation of Current-induced Switching in Non-collinear Antiferromagnetic IrMn3 by Differential Voltage Measurements," was published June 22 in the journal Nature Communications. Pedram Khalili, associate ...
Poll of 1,161 Ontario students shows attitudes toward cannabis differ from alcohol, creating potentially risky and dangerous driving behaviour
Ontario students are more likely to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after smoking cannabis than drinking alcohol, a new study from researchers at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine has revealed.
The study, published in Preventive Medicine, found 10 percent of licensed Ontario high school students reported driving within an hour of cannabis use. Driving after drinking alcohol was much less prevalent, with 3.5 percent of students doing so.
The study, led by master's student Nathan Cantor, found that students who favour cannabis ...
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Political institutions such as the timing of elections and presidentialism had a larger influence on COVID-19 strategies than the institutions organizing national healthcare, according to a research team led by a professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Olga Shvetsova, a political scientist at Binghamton University, and fellow researchers explored policy strategies on public health by the federal incumbents worldwide. Specifically, they looked at whether national incumbents led the charge as the pandemic unfolded ...
