A Longitudinal Study Investigating the Effects of Baumrind's Parenting Styles on Deviant, Delinquent, and Criminal Behavior

Professionals have a tendency to employ treatment-based approaches or palliative care with little regard for removing the causes of conditions using preventive interventions or behavior-change programming efforts. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between the parenting style received in childhood and the potential for criminal behavior as an adult in order to aid in preventative interventions to help at-risk youth. The research design of the current study was based on the secondary analysis of data from the NLSY97 data set. One MANOVA was conducted to assess the impacts of parenting style and race on deviant, delinquent, and criminal involvement. A second MANOVA was conducted to assess the impact of parenting style on deviant, delinquent, and criminal behavior over time. When examined separately, total number of arrests and delinquency scores were highest for children of parents with neglecting or authoritarian parenting styles. Total number of arrests and total number of incarcerations were higher for Black respondents than for Hispanic or White respondents, while White respondents had significantly higher mean delinquency scores than Black respondents. A measure of criminal and delinquent behavior was summed across three timeframes; results showed no significant impact of parenting style on any of the three timeframes or on the combined dependent variables. Parenting style is one of the many factors of juvenile delinquency, and it is hoped that this study will inform all individuals interacting with children of the importance of implementing early intervention, awareness, and respect across multi-disciplinarians