Parent-Child Relationships of Boys in Different Offending Trajectories. A Developmental Perspective

Background: This study tested the theoretical assumption that transformations of parent‐child relationships in late childhood and adolescence would differ for boys following different offending trajectories. Methods: Using longitudinal multiinformant data of 503 boys (ages 7–19), we conducted Growth Mixture Modeling to extract offending trajectories. Developmental changes in child reports of parent‐child joint activities and relationship quality were examined using Latent Growth Curves. Results: Five offending trajectories were found: non‐offenders, moderate childhood offenders, adolescent‐limited offenders, serious childhood offenders, and serious persistent offenders. Non‐offenders reported high and stable levels of relationship quality between age 10 and 16. Adolescent‐limited offenders reported a similarly high relationship quality as non‐offenders at ages 7 and 10, but a lower and decreasing relationship quality in adolescence. Compared with non‐offenders, serious persistent offenders reported poorer parent‐child relationship quality at all ages, and a decreasing relationship quality in adolescence. Serious persistent offenders and adolescent‐limited offenders reported similar levels and changes in parent‐child relationship quality in adolescence. Although serious persistent offenders reported fewer joint activities at age 10 and 13 than non‐offenders, a similar linear decrease in joint activities in early to middle adolescence was found for boys in each trajectory. Conclusion: Developmental changes in parent‐child relationship quality differ for different types of offenders. This finding has scientific and practical implications