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Exploring Intergenerational Discontinuity in Problem Behavior: Bad Parents With Good Children

NCJ Number
249093
Journal
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2015 Pages: 98-122
Author(s)
Beidi Dong
Date Published
April 2015
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Using data from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a series of regression models were estimated on offspring problem behavior, with a focus on the interaction between parental history of delinquency and the parent-child relationship.
Abstract
Good parenting practices significantly interacted with the particular form of parental propensity for offending over time, functioning as protective factors against problematic behaviors among those who were most at risk. The moderation effects varied slightly by the age of the subjects. Accordingly, it is important to distinguish the effect of not only the level of parental delinquency at one point in time, but also the influence of the delinquency trajectory on outcomes for their children. Good parenting holds the hope of breaking the vicious cycle of intergenerational transmission of delinquency. (Publisher abstract modified)