Abstract
Research suggests that juvenile delinquency has a number of deleterious effects on adolescents’ lives. A promising way to discourage delinquent behavior is by increasing social capital, which involves social connections adolescents have to other actors and pro-social norms that flow through these networks. The primary source of social capital is one’s family members, but no studies to date have focused directly on the effects of family social capital on delinquent behavior in the United Kingdom (U.K.). We use data from the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study (MCS, 2015–2016; n = 11,352) to assess different sources of family social capital among youth. The results of negative binomial regression models indicate that certain types of family social capital, including parental supervision, not fighting with parents, and talking to parents when youth are worried, are associated with less delinquent behavior, even after adjusting for covariates such as family structure, household income, and peer behaviors. The results add to the empirical foundation that supports family social capital’s attenuating effects on youth misbehaviors and increases confidence in the utility of social capital to serve as a generally applicable theory of youth development and behaviors.
Highlights
Research suggests that juvenile delinquency has a number of deleterious effects on adolescents’lives
Social capital—the social connections adolescents have to other actors and the resources that can flow across those connections—can help transmit pro-social norms that discourage delinquent and other untoward behaviors
We explore whether and in what manner indicators of family social capital are associated with delinquent behavior in the United Kingdom, a country that shares important linguistic and political roots with the U.S and differs from the U.S in important ways related to family formation and state support of families (Parcel et al 2012)
Summary
Research suggests that juvenile delinquency has a number of deleterious effects on adolescents’lives. These interactions begin at birth and continue through adolescence in the form of concerted cultivation (Lareau 2011), making connections with their children’s schools (Dufur et al 2013), and creating discussion spaces in which to exchange expectations and aid (Crosnoe 2004; Parcel and Dufur 2001) These investments build trust within the family, which is another aspect of social capital that helps to transmit parent-favored norms about behavior and attainment to their children. Parents help facilitate additional stores of social capital for their children when they build relationships with their children’s friends and those friends’ parents, allowing for joint transmission of pro-social norms (Crosnoe 2004; Dufur et al 2015)
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