The Association Between Parenting and Levels of Self-Control

Abstract

A growing body of criminological research has tested Gottfredson and Hirschi’s parental management thesis that highlights the causal role that parents play in shaping their child’s level of self-control. Although the results of these studies appear to provide support for the parental management thesis, in general, they all fail to adequately control for genetic factors and child-driven effects, which may result in biased findings. The current study addresses these limitations by analyzing a sample of twin pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Following quantitative genetic analysis, the results revealed that after taking into account genetic factors and child-driven effects, none of the covariance between parental management techniques and levels of low self-control was explained by parental socialization. The importance of these findings for criminological research examining the influence of parents on self-control specifically and antisocial behaviors generally is discussed.