Role of cognition in mediating parental knowledge and support as precipitants of early adolescent delinquency escalation: partial replication and extension

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether cognitive factors mediate the relationship between parental knowledge/support and delinquency escalation. Design/methodology/approach Using data from early adolescent youth enrolled in the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) study, two analyses were performed. The first analysis cross-lagged parental knowledge and cognitive impulsivity as predictors of delinquency escalation and the second analysis cross-lagged parental support and moral neutralization as predictors of delinquency escalation. Findings In both analyses, the indirect effect of a change in parenting on delinquency escalation via a change in cognition attained significance, whereas the indirect effect of a change in cognition on delinquency escalation via a change in parenting did not. In neither case did the direct effect of parenting on delinquency achieve significance. Research limitations/implications This study was limited, however, by exclusive reliance on self-report measures to assess all variables in this study and the use of explicit rather than implicit measures of cognitive impulsivity and moral neutralization. Practical implications The practical implications of these results are that they point to ways in which improved parenting can lead to crime deceleration; reduced cognitive impulsivity and moral neutralization can lead to crime deceleration. Social implications These results imply that social variables like parental knowledge and support stimulate a change in cognition as part of the process by which delinquency escalates during early adolescence. Originality/value The unique contribution this study makes to the field is that it highlights the role antisocial cognition plays in mediating between social factors and delinquency as part of the crime acceleration process that often occurs in early adolescence.