Citation

Dannerbeck AM. Youth Violence Juv. Justice 2005; 3(3): 199-213.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1541204005276260

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined attributes of parenting that are associated with juvenile delinquency and the related differential life experiences of youth with and without a parental incarceration history. Among 1,112 juveniles, 31% had a parental history of incarceration. Bivariate analysis indicated support for three hypotheses: (a) parents who have experienced incarceration will exhibit lower levels of effective parenting and greater association with factors that can impede their parenting abilities, namely substance abuse and mental illness; (b) youth who have parents with an incarceration history will be more likely to have experienced negative effects of ineffective parenting, namely abuse and out of home placement; and (c) youth with a parental incarceration history will have longer and more serious delinquent histories of their own. Through binary logistic regression analysis, support was not found for the fourth hypothesis that history of parental incarceration predicts delinquent behavior.