Moving Beyond Fatherhood Involvement: The Association Between Father–Child Relationship Quality and Youth Delinquency Trajectories

Abstract

The effect of nonresidential father relationship characteristics on delinquency trajectories among low‐income youth (N = 799) was examined using data from the Three Cities Study, a longitudinal study of mothers and their children eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio. Growth curve models were employed to track delinquency trajectories and their rate of growth. Characteristics of father–child relationships (anger–alienation, trust–communication) were specified as predictors of delinquency while controlling for father involvement and family structure. Trust–communication influenced delinquency growth, but the rate of growth slowed as youth aged. Implications for programs, interventions, and policy are explored.

Family negativity and delinquent behavior in adolescence: a predictive multivariate latent growth analysis

“…Our results are in line with findings of earlier work demonstrating the protective effect of paternal (Yoder et al, 2016) as well as maternal support on adolescent delinquency (Hoeve et al, 2009). Combined with our findings concerning the sibling relationship, these findings suggest that investing specifically in relationships of adolescents with their mothers, fathers as well as siblings may have a mitigating effect on adolescent delinquency development.…”

Paternal and Maternal Influence on Delinquency among Early Adolescents in Hong Kong

“…Specifically, the level of delinquent behavior increases when individuals develop from childhood to early adolescence and reaches its peak gradually (i.e., the rate of increase slows down as adolescents age), then declining from late adolescence to adulthood. Such a developmental route has been observed in different cultures [1,3,7,8]. For instance, it was identified that the delinquency level was lower in early adolescents than that in mid-adolescents, while late adolescents demonstrated more delinquent behaviors than did adults [9].…”

“…In literature, family processes have been commonly emphasized as utmost important factors that influence adolescent delinquent behavior, because family constitutes the basic ecology where children are socialized and their behavioral patterns are shaped [15]. For example, positive family functioning, parental supervision, and attachment exhibited negative associations with adolescent delinquent behavior [6,16,17], while neglect and a poor parental–child relationship positively predicted adolescent delinquent behavior [8,18]. Among different parental factors, parental control has been emphasized as one critical dimension that is vital to the development of adolescent delinquency [2].…”

“…Besides, parental behavioral control tended to halt the growing trend of adolescent delinquent behavior [3]. Likewise, Yoder et al [8] showed that a better father-child relationship was associated with a deeper decline trajectory of adolescent delinquency.…”

“…The second question we asked was: “How do the various factors of parent-child subsystem qualities predict the growth rate of adolescent delinquency across junior high school years?” Based on the general theoretical stand and limited evidence showing that favorable parental factors lead to a faster decline or a slower increase in adolescent problem behaviors [3,8], we hypothesized that stronger behavioral control of fathers (Hypothesis 2a) and mothers (Hypothesis 2b) would predict a slower increase in children’s delinquency. In contrast, fathers’ (Hypothesis 2c) and mothers’ (Hypothesis 2d) stronger psychological control would predict a faster growth rate of children’s delinquency.…”