This paper studies the effects of parental attitudes and behaviors on young adult crime.
The findings of this study, which draws on social learning theory to examine associations between parents’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior and youth crime, provide support for a social learning approach and demonstrate the ongoing role of parents through late adolescence to adulthood via direct and indirect pathways. The authors find that parental behaviors are associated with youths’ involvement in crime. In addition, parental influence processes help to shape youths’ own developing attitudes which, in turn, contribute to their risk of offending. These findings underscore the need to direct additional attention to family influence processes to develop a comprehensive understanding of youth involvement in crime and to inform the development of programmatic efforts focused on disrupting the process of intergenerational transmission. Extending beyond prior work in the social learning tradition, the authors expand the scope of attitudes and beliefs that may elevate youths’ risk, recognizing that most interactions and communications involve noncriminal considerations. Using longitudinal data from the National Survey of Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (n = 1,162), the authors explore the direct and indirect role of parental attitudes and behaviors on individuals’ self-reported crime using structural equation models. (Published Abstract Provided)