Relations Between Neighborhood Factors, Parenting Behaviors, Peer Deviance, and Delinquency Among Serious Juvenile Offenders

• Published in: Developmental psychology 2006-03, Vol.42 (2), p.319-331
• Main Authors: Chung, He Len, Steinberg, Laurence
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anti-social behaviour; Antisocial Behavior; Antisocial behaviour; Behavior; Behavioral Ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Childrearing Practices; Correlation; Delinquency; Developmental psychology; Economically Disadvantaged; Empirical research; Environmental Effects; Environmental Influences; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Human; Humans; Juvenile Delinquency; Juvenile Delinquency - psychology; Juvenile Delinquency - statistics & numerical data; Juvenile offenders; Male; Medical sciences; Minority Groups; Models, Psychological; Multivariate analysis; Neighborhoods; Neighbourhoods; Parent Child Relationship; Parenting; Parenting Style; Parenting Styles; Parents & parenting; Peer Group; Peer groups; Peer Influence; Peer Relations; Peers; Predictor Variables; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Residence Characteristics; Social Behavior Disorders - epidemiology; Social Behavior Disorders - psychology; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Social Characteristics; Social Environment; Social problems; Social Structure; Surveys and Questionnaires; Urban Areas
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.319

The present study examined relations among neighborhood structural and social characteristics, parenting practices, peer group affiliations, and delinquency among a group of serious adolescent offenders. The sample of 14-18-year-old boys ( N = 488) was composed primarily of economically disadvantaged, ethnic-minority youth living in urban communities. The results indicate that weak neighborhood social organization is indirectly related to delinquency through its associations with parenting behavior and peer deviance and that a focus on just 1 of these microsystems can lead to oversimplified models of risk for juvenile offending. The authors also find that community social ties may confer both pro- and antisocial influences to youth, and they advocate for a broad conceptualization of neighborhood social processes as these relate to developmental risk for youth living in disadvantaged communities.