Abstract
In the current study, we examined longitudinally whether boys and girls differed in pathways from parenting to delinquency. Longitudinal mediational models were tested for boys and girls separately in which three parenting dimensions (i.e., monitoring, limit setting, and the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship) were hypothesized to influence adolescents’ level of self-control, delinquent attitudes, peer delinquency, and time spent in criminogenic settings, which in turn, were hypothesized to affect delinquency. Using data of 603 adolescents (11–17 years of age at T1) we found mean level differences between boys and girls in parental monitoring, parental limit-setting, self-control, delinquent attitudes, and peer delinquency. The results suggest furthermore that the model linking parenting to delinquency is similar for boys and girls. We found, however, that the indirect effect from the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship through self-control is stronger for girls than for boys.
Highlights
In the current study, we examined longitudinally whether boys and girls differed in pathways from parenting to delinquency
In addition to the mechanisms derived from self-control theory and differential association theory, we examined the unique contribution of a relatively new construct to explain the link between parenting and delinquency: time spent in criminogenic settings (Janssen et al 2016)
The first aim of the present study was to determine whether sex differences exist in the mean level of parenting, self-control, delinquent attitudes, peer delinquency, and time spent in criminogenic settings
Summary
We examined longitudinally whether boys and girls differed in pathways from parenting to delinquency. Wong et al (2010) in their review of 30 European studies found that females had a number of different risk factors for delinquency compared to boys, such as negative life events, physical abuse by parents, and internalizing problems. The second explanation entails that the same risk factors play a role in involvement in delinquent behavior for boys and girls, and that boys and girls differ in delinquency involvement because they are differentially exposed to the same risk factors (Moffitt et al 2001) According to this approach sex differences in delinquency can be explained by differences in the mean levels of risk factors of delinquency (Mears et al 1998; Moffitt et al 2001; Worthen 2011). This approach entails that sex differences in delinquency can be explained by differences in the effects of risk factors of delinquency, regardless of possible sex differences in the mean levels of these risk factors (Mears et al 1998; Moffitt et al 2001; Worthen 2011)
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