A delinquent child is one of a given age who has either violated a specific law or has been involved in an indecent, immoral or a disobedient conduct. Children who are delinquent are generally in need of rehabilitation. Juvenile delinquency is a major societal issue since it has direct consequences on the lives of perpetrators and victims as well as the connection of juvenile delinquency case and the criminal offending in future. Therefore, the act of seeking to solve instances of juvenile delinquency by establishing its central antecedents and the causes will significantly help in the prevention of the delinquent behavior among the minors as well as curtail of potential adult crimes.
The unit of analysis of the study is a group. The effects of parenting will be analyzed to determine their influence on the child is becoming delinquent. As such, the study will consider the implications that parenting has for the child becoming delinquent. The independent variable to be used in the study is parenting while the dependent variable for the study is the juvenile delinquency. The unit of analysis is the group (parenting) which is operationalized by being classified into two categories of non-bad and lousy parenting.
The primary purpose of the study is to determine if lousy parenting affects delinquency of children. The research is much pertinent since its findings can assist in diagnosing the primary source of juvenile delinquency by entailing lousy parenting which also creates an opportunity for addressing the issue. Additionally, the importance of the study depends on how a solution to the juvenile delinquency can be obtained by establishing its parenting antecedents which will help in addressing criminality in the adult life. Again, the study may potentially determine whether the adverse parenting can be used to predict juvenile delinquency hence assisting in the identification of the origin of the issue and providing informed intervention measures that are intended at addressing the issue of parenting as a way in which it can curtail the juvenile delinquency and its effects.
The research question of the study is derived from the primary purpose of the study which is investigating if there exists a relationship between juvenile delinquency and bad parenting and it goes as follows: Does terrible parenting affect a child to become a delinquent? The independent variable is being represented by lousy parenting while juvenile delinquency represents the dependent variable. The null hypothesis that guides the study is: There does not exist any significant relationship between young delinquency effects and lousy parenting.
The measurement of the study utilizes a quantitative cross-sectional survey which investigates if bad parenting affects juvenile delinquency. The approach of the cross-sectional study will provide an image that depicts if lousy parenting changes the delinquency outcomes and the related dynamics such as the gender of children and parents involved. The approach of cross-section survey will provide a perfect measurement which demonstrates if bad parenting has influenced a child who had to go through the issue. The quantitative focus of the measure will assist in making the findings to be generalizable to the broader population.
The parenting styles affect the way children perceive the parent and hence the manner the child reacts towards the authority being displayed by the parent. Healthy families, as well as good parenting, are the protective factors concerning delinquent behavior. The parenting style which is authoritarian focuses typically on controlling children and affecting them to comply with the rules. The negative feeling by parents towards their children contributes to the child developing antisocial behavior (Larsson, Viding, Rijsdijk, & Plomin, 2008). The primary focus of good parenting is structure, obedience, and respect for authority. The rules set by parents should be made clear and should not negotiate with children about the rules. The parenting style which is authoritative mostly appears to produce children who are mainly less affected by the negative peer pressure. According to the study by Loeber et al., (2000), different interaction patterns by the family that is negative are related to various kinds of deviant children behavior including being delinquent offending. Besides, those parents who are found to be more indulgent and permissive raise children who are affected more by their delinquent peer groups and negative associates. Having parental supervision at low levels is often related to neglectful and disengaged association and has been connected to having higher rates of the delinquent behaviors.
To conclude with, there is a significant relationship that exists between delinquency and parenting. The negative aspects of support which include neglect, hostility and physiological control have a strong influence on the child’s misconduct. Moreover, the various indicator of effective parental monitoring includes child disclosure, active parent monitoring, and parental knowledge are also linked to delinquency. Parental supervision is more strongly associated with overt delinquency among children. Furthermore, the parenting style that is authoritative mostly is found to produce children who are mainly less affected by the negative peer pressure hence minimizes delinquency among children.
- Larsson, H., Viding, E., Rijsdijk, F. V., & Plomin, R. (2008). Relationships between parental negativity and childhood antisocial behavior over time: A bidirectional effects model in a longitudinal genetically informative design. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 36, 5, 633-645.
- Loeber, R., Drinkwater, M., Yin, Y., Anderson, S. J., Schmidt, L. C., & Crawford, A. (2000). Stability of family interaction from ages 6 to 18. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 28, 4, 353-369.