Research in several theoretical areas showed that attachment between parents and their child makes a difference in the adolescents participation in delinquency (Sogar, 2017). We chose to use the term single-parent family, but we are aware of the sensitivities regarding this type of wording. Sixth, we hypothesized that children experiencing a parental separation growing up with only a biological father would show the highest level of juvenile delinquency, and children born to a single parent growing up with only a biological mother would show the lowest level of juvenile delinquency (H3b). Although these experiences all result in single-parent families, they are associated with different processes and may have differential consequences for delinquent behavior. The economic strain model focuses on how lack of resources may mediate the effects that single-parent families have on adolescent criminal behavior (see Sogar, 2017). Journal of Family Psychology, 15(3), 355. https://doi.org/10.1037//0893-3200.15.3.355, Amato, P. R., & Cheadle, J. E. (2008). In F. P. Williams III & M. D. McShane (Eds. This was important because of the challenges these fathers face with the police and justice systems, with about 40% of the unmarried fathers spending some time in prison. American Journal of Human Biology, 29(6), e23046. It is also in line with previous results described above: we did find age effects at the start of the single-parent family, but no effects of the type of single-parent family. How this research was conducted Correspondence to https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2010.57.3.448. The loss of a biological parent can lead to weaker attachment and/or the development of insecure attachment, as a key relationship is ruptured. This model suggests that psychological distress, emotional resentment, and social tension are more often related to parental separation than parental death. Children of divorce in the 1990s: An update of the Amato and Keith (1991) meta-analysis. When one biological parent got a different registered address than the other biological parent and their offspring, this was coded as a parental separation. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2020.1774589, Larmuseau, M. H., Claerhout, S., Gruyters, L., Nivelle, K., Vandenbosch, M., Peeters, A., van den Berg, P., Wenseleers, T., & Decorte, R. (2017). First, we controlled for criminal behavior committed by the biological parents (see Table 1A for an overview of the items about parental crime, ranging from road traffic offenses to violent property crimes). The datasets contain information from different sources. Berg, L., Rostila, M., Arat, A., & Hjern, A. Moreover, a better father-child relationship was related to a deeper decline trajectory of adolescent delinquency (Yoder et al., 2016). Again, as mentioned above, this might be explained by paternal closeness, since both sons and daughters show a lower likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency when the closeness to their father is high (Johnson, 1987; Yoder et al., 2016), most likely also occurring in single-father families. Since researchers were able to study the effects of age at the start of the single-parent family, it is not surprising that Bowlbys attachment theory, previous studies (e.g., Juby & Farrington, 2001), and our study show similar results. Moreover, Demuth and Brown (2004) found that mean levels of delinquency are highest among adolescents residing in single-father families, independent of the sex of the child. (2016). The BVH replaced the HKS, and it comprises a more elaborate list of offenses than the HKS system (see Table 1A for an overview of the types of crime in both datasets). The children can be registered at only one address in the Dutch population register, yet other types of living situations are possible as well. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23046. This implies that the relationship between growing up in single-parent families and juvenile delinquency is much more complex than often assumed. The reason for this removal is that the crime data from the Dutch National Police only apply to crimes perpetrated in the Netherlands and does not include crimes perpetrated abroad. Mothers versus fathers role in causing delinquency. This resulted in a sample of 1,296,652 children. A number of contradictory ideas about the effects of the sex of the biological parent on juvenile delinquency have been constructed, leading us to formulate three (partially competing) hypotheses. Family Relations, 65(3), 462476. Crime and Justice, 43(1), 421490. Of all adolescents, those in intact married families are the least likely to commit delinquent acts. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the intergenerational transmission of criminal behavior. Second, our study did not make a distinction between temporary parental separations and permanent parental separations. The Dutch National Police provided data about juvenile delinquency from 2005 to 2017 by means of the Basic Facility for Law Enforcement (Basisvoorziening Handhaving [BVH]) and data about parental crime from 1996 to 2014 by means of the Police Offenders Identification System (Herkenningsdienst Systeem [HKS]). The impact of incarceration on employment during the transition to adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-015-0002-5. Kroese, J. The sixth factor is the country of birth of the childrens biological parents, because several studies showed incongruent results regarding the relation between ethnic minority youths and crime rates (e.g., Rima et al., 2019). Children who experienced parental separation and children having one deceased biological parent both showed lower levels of delinquency. For the present study, seven complete birth cohorts of individuals born in the period 19931999 were selected. Congruent with these contradicting theories, empirical studies show conflicting results as well. Parental death during childhood and violent crime in late adolescence to early adulthood: a Swedish national cohort study. At any given time, this holds for 15% of the families with children in the European Union (Eurostat, 2019) and for 23% of the families in the USA (Pew Research Center, 2019). Aggression and Violent Behavior, 37, 161178. volume7,pages 596622 (2021)Cite this article. Vanassche et al. The results (see Table 2) show that having separated parents before age 12, having one deceased biological parent before age 12, or being born to a single parent (compared to having lived with two biological parents before age 12) all significantly increased the odds that the child became a suspect of delinquent behavior. Therefore, and aware of the fact that availability of such data for scientific research varies widely between countries, we recommend using population register data more often to study the relation between single-parent families and juvenile delinquency, to obtain more knowledge about the validity of these theories. Second, we cannot extract the full information from the data about the living situation of the families. Google Scholar, Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bowlby, J. 2) The same is true for crime. The influence of family process and structure on delinquency in adolescenceAn examination of theory and research. Single-Parent Families and Adolescent Crime: Unpacking the Role of Parental Separation, Parental Decease, and Being Born to a Single-Parent Family. Therefore, it is important to investigate the consequences of growing up in a single-parent family. In the next logistic regression, we investigated the relation between the sex of the biological parent in the single-parent family and juvenile delinquency, and compared this to children living with both biological parents (see Table 3). Single Parent Statistics Highlights of statistics on single parent homes: 80% of all single parents in the U.S. are single mothers . Single fathers, on average, have higher incomes than single mothers and are far less likely to be living at or below the poverty line24% versus 43%. Addressing a gap in the extant literature on single-parent families and juvenile delinquency, we distinguish between different types of single-parent families. Furthermore, the NCFMR reports that single fathers are slightly more likely than single moms to have at least a bachelor's degree (23% of single dads vs. 18% of single moms) and to have graduated high school. Social Problems, 57(3), 448479. Health consequences and help-seeking among victims of crime: An examination of sex differences. The Difference (Black) Dads Make Watch on Among study highlights: Black children in single-parent homes were 3.5 times more likely to live in poverty compared to peers who lived with both parents in a first marriage. However, daughters growing up with biological mothers (compared to daughters growing up with biological fathers) also showed an increased likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency, although we expected to find the opposite result. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Fourth, we hypothesized that children experiencing a parental separation at a younger age show a higher level of juvenile delinquency, compared to children experiencing a parental death at a younger age (H2b). Another logistic regression was performed to establish the relation between the sex of the biological parent in combination with the type of single-parent family and juvenile delinquency, and again compared this to children living with both biological parents (see Table 3). Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 49(1), 5671. *U.S. Census Bureau. Future research should pay more attention to diversity in the composition of single-parent families. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650804900105. Moreover, children born to a single parent showed the highest likelihood to engage in delinquency. According to one study, children raised in single-parent families are one-third more likely to exhibit anti-social behavior. To construct the variable type of single-parent family, we first checked whether the children were born to a single parent, and assigned these children to the third category of single-parent families living in a single-parent family due to being born to a single parent. If this was not the case, we checked whether one of their parents had passed away between birth and age 11, and assigned these children to the second category of single-parent families living in a single-parent family due to a parental death. In case this did not happen, we checked whether their biological parents had been separated between birth and age 11, and assigned these children to the first category of single-parent families living in a single-parent family due to a parental separation., The dependent variable was based on recorded criminal behavior of the adolescents as registered by the Dutch National Police (see Table 1A for an overview of the items about juvenile delinquency). Based on Bowlbys attachment theory and the maternal hypothesis, we hypothesize that growing up with only a biological father in a single-parent family increases the likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency in comparison with growing up with only a biological mother (H3a). Incarceration as exposure: the prison, infectious disease, and other stress-related illnesses. Therefore, this dataset is large enough to allow authoritative answers to our research questions. Living arrangements of children under 18 years old: 1960 to present. Studies have shown that children raised by single mothers are no more likely to commit crimes than children raised by two-parent households. Given the small number that identified their fathers as the single parent, we decided to focus our investigation on the female single-parent. A control theory of delinquency. The family crisis model focuses on the processes involved in family disruptions (see Mack et al., 2007). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Peterson, D., Esbensen, F. A., Taylor, T. J., & Freng, A. First, children from single-parent families are more likely to become involved in criminal activity. Results: The demographic characteristics of the weighted population showed that taxable income, total income, and poverty status were higher for single fathers than mothers, while non-work income was higher for single mothers than fathers. Hay, C., Fortson, E. N., Hollist, D. R., Altheimer, I., & Schaible, L. M. (2006). Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 5(4), 385410. The maternal hypothesis is very similar, as it states that living with a single mother should be expected to cause a lower level of delinquency than living with a single father, because the mother is better able to exercise a more effective control of the child (see Eitle, 2006). This is in line with Bowlbys attachment theory, but not with the family crisis model, since we did not find a difference between the two types of single-parent families. The data used in this study were constructed by combining various register-based datasets accessible via Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek).Footnote 2 These datasets contain (generally longitudinal) individual or household level data on the entire registered population of the Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-021-00183-7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40865-021-00183-7. The results, reported in Table 2, demonstrate that having lived with one biological parent before age 12 (compared to having lived with two biological parents before age 12) significantly increased the odds that the child became a suspect of delinquent behavior during adolescence (OR = 1.70, 95% CI [1.67, 1.73]). Both household income and the presence of stepparents could possibly mediate the relation between family composition and delinquency.Footnote 6 Therefore, we also performed all analyses of this study without including these two variables, so that the family composition variables capture both direct and indirect effects. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.11.015. We therefore studied life satisfaction among 641 individuals (ages 18-66 years) who spent their entire childhood with a single mother, 1539 individuals who spent part of their childhood with both parents but then experienced parental separation, and 21,943 individuals who grew . We did not find statistically significant differences between growing up with only a biological mother or a biological father after a separation (OR = 1.05, 95% CI [1.00, 1.11]), and growing up with only a biological mother or a biological father when one of the parents passed away (OR = 1.09, 95% CI [0.98, 1.22]). Becker, H. (1963). Our focus is on single mothers, rather than single parents, because single fathers have very different socioeconomic characteristics and parenting styles (Bronte-Tinkew, Scott, & Lilja, 2010). 107 mothers had no entry in the marital status section and five mothers had unclear entries in the name sections but neither group had any indication of the child's father in the records.Thus, they were identified as unmarried. Juby, H., & Farrington, D. P. (2001). Moving beyond fatherhood involvement: The association between fatherchild relationship quality and youth delinquency trajectories. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Children of separated parents: Registered versus reported place of residence. (2003). Multivariate regression models were used in the analysis. Their population-based cohort study comprised 40 000 people who took part in the Canadian Community Health . Since single mothers make less money than 2 parent households. For instance, because the household income is generally lower in families with only one biological parent, it is possible that the children are more inclined to engage in offenses such as stealing to obtain money. The fourth factor is the birth year of the children to control for birth cohort effects, since from the 1990s onwards, in many Western countries, the level of crime started to decrease (Farrell et al., 2014). Children born to a single parent were hypothesized to display the lowest levels (H1b). When is a youths debt to society paid? Routledge. Well, now that we see the whole data set, one might. The fifth factor is whether or not the single parent started to live together with a new partner. Family structure is a key concept in our analysis. Data management, record linkage, and analyses were executed on the secure server of Statistics Netherlands with STATA, version 15.0. OPINION Father's Day Add Topic Sorry, Harvard, fathers still matter including Black fathers Black children from two-parent homes do better than children from single-parent homes when it. This means that another key independent variable is the type of family the child lives in before age 12. Financial support was provided by the Amsterdam Law and Behavior Institute (A-LAB), the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), and the Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations (ODISSEI). Fifth, we hypothesized that growing up with only a biological father compared to only a biological mother in a single-parent family would increase the likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency (H3a), and we hypothesized that the sex of the biological parent in a single-parent family would not affect the likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency (H3c). (2021). Thus, hypothesis H1b is not confirmed, because among children growing up in a single-parent family, children experiencing a parental separation before age 12 did not show the highest likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency and children born to a single parent did not show the lowest likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency. First, based on extensive prior evidence (e.g., Kroese et al., 2021), we hypothesized that growing up in a single-parent family would increase the likelihood of engaging in juvenile delinquency, as compared to growing up with both biological parents (H1a). A logistic regression model was estimated to establish the relation between the age of the children when the single-parent family was constituted and juvenile delinquency, in comparison with children living with both biological parents. The existing literature mostly confirms the expected relation between experiencing the constitution of a single-parent family at a younger age and a higher level of juvenile delinquency. "A Cornell study found that unwed mothers are 30 percent less likely to marry than other single . three percent identifying their fathers as the single parent. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2016.1270870, Spohn, R. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2011). Retrieved January 5, 2022, from: https://richtlijnenjeugdhulp.nl/scheiding/interventies-voor-jeugdigen-met-gescheiden-ouders/algemene-adviezen-naar-leeftijd-van-de-jeugdigen/, Rima, D., Yerbol, A., Batyrbek, S., Orynbassar, T., & Beaver, K. M. (2019). When it comes to age, single dads also tend to be somewhat older than single mothers. Under certain conditions, these microdata sets are accessible for statistical and scientific research. A logistic regression was performed to establish the relation between the sex of the biological parent in combination with the sex of the child in the single-parent family and juvenile delinquency, and compared children in each category to daughters living with both biological parents (the reference category, see Table 3). Messerschmidt, J. W. (2013). Growing up with only a biological mother compared to a biological father when the child was born to a single parent (OR = 1.51, 95% CI [1.36, 1.67]) significantly increased the chance that the child became a suspect of delinquent behavior. Single fathers are more likely than single mothers to be living with a cohabiting partner (41% versus 16%). Parental divorce, marital conflict and childrens behavior problems: A comparison of adopted and biological children. It is well-established in the empirical literature (e.g., Amato, 2001; Kroese et al., 2021) as well as hypothesized by several criminological theories (e.g., general strain theory and social control theory; Agnew, 2006; Hirschi, 1969) that growing up in a single-parent family and juvenile delinquency are related. Free Press. (U.S. Census Bureau . This is in contrast with the family crisis model. Kroese, J., Bernasco, W., Liefbroer, A.C. et al. Typically, this is because the biological parents have stopped living together or never lived together, or because one of them passed away. Again, as described above, this could also be influenced by the length of exposure of the child to the single-parent family. Moreover, a son growing up with only a mother due to a parental separation compared to growing up with only a father due to a parental separation, significantly increased the chance that the son became a suspect of delinquent behavior.