A large body or research provides strong evidence that parents play a significant role in the likelihood that adolescents will refrain from or engage in delinquent behavior. However, a significant omission in this line of inquiry pertains to the stability of parenting practices during adolescence and the implication of changes in parenting for delinquent behavior and factors known to be related to delinquency. The current study sheds light on these issues by making use of data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), a 15-year study that followed a U.S. national sample of families from the birth of a child to the time the child reached the age of fifteen. The findings of this study reveal that there are significant changes in parenting practices during early adolescence and that these changes are related to changes in delinquent behavior. In addition, changes in the quality of parenting are significantly related to changes in adolescent self-control and affiliations with delinquent peers, providing further evidence that changes in parenting having meaningful effects. Lastly, the observed relationship between changes in parenting and changes in delinquency during early adolescence is almost entirely accounted for by changes in self-control and changes in delinquent peer affiliations. Thus, this study contributes to the body of literature on the relationship between parenting and delinquency by providing evidence that parenting practices change over time and that these changes are related to patterns of delinquent behavior during a crucial developmental period in the lives of adolescents. / A Dissertation Submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2010. / April 28, 2010. / Parenting, Stability, Change, Delinquency / Includes bibliographical references. / Carter Hay, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lenore McWey, University Representative; Sarah Bacon, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_180687 |
| Contributors | Meldrum, Ryan Charles (authoraut), Hay, Carter (professor directing dissertation), McWey, Lenore (university representative), Bacon, Sarah (committee member), College of Criminology and Criminal Justice (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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