70% of youths in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes - 9 times the average. Compared to children living with both biological parents, findings suggest that the likelihood of juvenile delinquency increases (1) when children are born to a single parent, followed by children with separated parents and children experiencing parental death, (2) when the single-parent family started at a younger age, and (3) when children grow up with only a biological mother, both for sons and daughters, compared to only a biological father. However, Juby and Farrington (2001) found that boys were significantly more likely to self-report delinquency and have arrest records when growing up in a single-father family compared to a single-mother family. In studying the relationship between family structure and delinquency, several factors need to be controlled for. How this research was conducted https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315130620-4, Article 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). The impact of incarceration on employment during the transition to adulthood. Family Relations, 65(3), 462476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519888531. Domestic violence was about 40 times more likely among divorced or separated women, ranging from 37.7 to 118.5 per 1000. A total of 1,296,652 children were included in the analyses. Welke definitie van migratieachtergrond wordt in de barometer gehanteerd? (2016). 52.9% of single mothers are millennials. This means that another key independent variable is the type of family the child lives in before age 12. The Root of Crime Today, nearly 25 million children have an absentee father. We defined this variable as whether none of the biological parents, one of the biological parents, or two of the biological parents have been a suspect of a criminal act before the child turned 12 years old, independent of the number of crimes and the severity of the crime(s). Hirschi, T. (1969). Number of children living with a single mother or a single father in the U.S. from 1970 to 2022 (in 1,000s) Year Number of children in thousands Mother only Father only 1970 1975 1980. Single-parent families were differentiated along three dimensions, namely (1) by how they were constituted (either parental separation, parental decease, or being born to a single parent), (2) by the age of the child when the single-parent family was constituted, and (3) by the sex of the biological parent the child grew up with in the single-parent family. 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). Individuals were excluded from the analysis if they were stillborn, if they passed away before the age of 19, or if they were born outside the Netherlands. (Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post; iStock) 7 min. Single-Parent Families and Adolescent Crime: Unpacking the Role of Parental Separation, Parental Decease, and Being Born to a Single-Parent Family. B., Hill, K. G., & Hawkins, J. D. (2015). Therefore, it is possible that the family crisis model is not valid, or is no longer valid, since the children who did not experience a crisis event showed the highest level of juvenile delinquency. Third, to this day, many children still grow up in single-parent families, and growing up in a single-parent family still seems to have negative consequences. Ram and Hou (2005) and Eitle (2006) found that living in a single-mother family increases the level of crime for male adolescents compared to female adolescents. These three aspects have rarely been examined in prior research due to data limitations (e.g., due to a low number of single-father families; Demuth & Brown, 2004). Removing these two variables did not change the directions or significance levels of the remaining variables. The effects of single-mother and single-father families on youth crime: Examining five gender-related hypotheses Authors: Siu Kwong Wong Request full-text Abstract This study examined the. In a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, two-thirds of adults said that more single women raising children on their own was bad for society, and 48% said the same about more unmarried couples raising children. Because the sample includes multiple siblings from the same families, these siblings have common unmeasured household characteristics. Vrouwen lopen na scheiding steeds minder risico op armoede. Bowlbys attachment theory (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991) suggests that attachment derives from the biological preparation of both child and parents to respond to each others behaviors in such a way that parents provide the child with care and protection. However, our results showed that children born to a single parent growing up with only a biological mother showed the highest likelihood on becoming a suspect of juvenile delinquency, and children born to a single parent growing up with only a biological father showed the lowest likelihood on becoming a suspect of juvenile delinquency. It is operationalized by two variables, i.e., single-parent family and type of single-parent family.. Moreover, when we combine Bowlbys attachment theory and the family crisis model, we hypothesize 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). In contrast, parental death is a traumatic event that produces anxiety, emotional distress, and depression, but does not usually involve the same level of emotional resentment as in separated families. First, a logistic regression model was estimated to determine the relation between growing up living with both biological parents or living in a single-parent family and becoming a suspect of juvenile delinquency. A study by Juby and Farrington (2001) found that families disrupted by separation were more criminogenic than families disrupted by parental death when looking at reports on juvenile convictions. Five gender-specific hypotheses are formulated and tested using municipal-level data from 433 Canadian municipalities in 2006 and 2011. https://doi.org/10.1086/678081, Gilman, A. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/41.1.22, Kierkus, C., & Baer, D. (2003). Data from the 2004 Monitoring the Future survey examined a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of 8th to 12th grade adolescents in rural and urban schools from across the United States (N = 37,507).Results found that drug use among daughters living with single fathers significantly exceeded that of daughters living with single mothers, while gender of parent was not associated . Welvaart in Nederland 2019. 1). To correct for this violation of the independence assumption, we calculated robust standard errors that correct for common household-membership. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0025, Apel, R., & Sweeten, G. (2010). Some studies found that single-parent families were more strongly associated with crime in low-income families (e.g., Hay et al., 2006), yet other studies reported only a trivial effect of income on the relation between single-parent families and juvenile delinquency (e.g., Kierkus & Bear, 2003). A son growing up with only a biological mother (OR = 1.62, 95% CI [1.58, 1.65]) or only a biological father (OR = 1.41, 95% CI [1.34, 1.48]) significantly increased the chance that the son became a suspect of delinquent behavior compared to a son growing up with both biological parents. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau. Although the dataset thus does not only contain data about delinquents who were convicted, over 90% of the people in the dataset are estimated to receive a transaction (e.g., a fine) or to be charged and found guilty by a judge (Besjes & Van Gaalen, 2008). https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427803256236, Eitle, D. (2006). 1. Most of the estimates for the control variables included in all models were in line with expectations from the literature (see Appendix for all tables comprising the results including the control variables). We used the anonymized personal identifiers constructed by Statistics Netherlands to link the microdata sets. Second, we cannot extract the full information from the data about the living situation of the families. 1. Meta's new AI is being used to create sex chatbots - The Washington Post https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427806291262. One of these situations, the single motherhood situation, occurs when a father figure is Using Dutch population register data on nearly 1.3 million children, we performed logistic regressions to assess the relation between growing up in a single-parent family before age 12 and the likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency during adolescence. Facts On Unmarried Parents in the U.S. | Pew Research Center Note that the estimates reported in Table 3 (and in the other regression result tables) allow us to compare the effects of any two categories by taking the ratio of their odds ratios. Position Paper Let's look at the data, updated: Single mothers appear to have stopped causing crime at around 1990 or so. This means that people received a procs-verbal, an official report drawn up by a police officer about a crime that has occurred. The effects of family type, family relationships and parental role models on delinquency and alcohol use among Flemish adolescents. Solo Fathers and Mothers: An Exploration of Well-Being, Social Support Smyth, B. M. (2017). This lack of data on prior family dynamics may be an important source of residual confounding. Since single mothers make less money than 2 parent households. We have three suggestions for future research. 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). Family structure as a social context for family conflict: Unjust strain and serious delinquency. In contrast with the hypothesis regarding age of the child at the start of the family (with results in line with Bowlbys attachment theory), the hypotheses about the differences between single-parent families (based on the family crisis model) and the sex of the parent whom the children live with (based on Bowlbys attachment theory, the maternal hypothesis, the equality hypothesis, and the same-sex hypothesis) were not confirmed. First, register data do not include information on the mechanisms of family life during childhood that are potentially relevant. Janique Kroese. Hay, C., Fortson, E. N., Hollist, D. R., Altheimer, I., & Schaible, L. M. (2006). Google Scholar, Ainsworth, M. D. S., & Bowlby, J. Our results confirmed that a lower age during the start of a single-parent family increased the chance that the child has been a suspect of a criminal act during adolescence. Disentangling the link between disrupted families and delinquency. (2019) found an increased risk of violent crime after experiencing a parental death, it is possible that the family crisis model is not valid, or is no longer valid. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 41(1), 5881. Moreover, when we combine these theoretical ideas and the family crisis model, we hypothesize that children experiencing a parental separation growing up with only a biological father show the highest level of juvenile delinquency, and children born to a single parent growing up with only a biological mother show the lowest level of juvenile delinquency (H3b). The same-sex hypothesis states that the biological parent who is of the same sex as the child is the more effective role model for the child (see Eitle, 2006), suggesting that the father is a better role model for the son and the mother is a better role model for the daughter. 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). However, they also noted that a small number of children are registered with their father, yet actually live with their biological mother or live in a shared custody arrangement with both biological parents. (2019) did not find statistically significant differences between the age categories with regard to the childs age at the time of death of their parent. The children can be registered at only one address in the Dutch population register, yet other types of living situations are possible as well. We found no effect of household income on childrens likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency. When is a youths debt to society paid? In this paper, we attempt to unpack the relationship between criminal behavior of adolescents and growing up in a single-parent family by distinguishing differential characteristics of single-parent families in the Netherlands. Most people were never a suspect of a crime, and those who were a suspect often only were a suspect of a crime only once. The Real, Complex Connection Between Single-Parent Families and Crime Both datasets contain suspects of all ages who have been charged with a serious offense eligible for prosecution. Therefore, it is important to investigate the consequences of growing up in a single-parent family. Moreover, a better father-child relationship was related to a deeper decline trajectory of adolescent delinquency (Yoder et al., 2016). Family structure, family processes, and adolescent delinquency: The significance of parental absence versus parental gender. Berg, L., Rostila, M., Arat, A., & Hjern, A. One possible explanation that cannot be tested with population register data is parental closeness. The current study thus adds to the existing literature by examining the relationship between criminal behavior during adolescence and (1) how single-parent families were constituted (by parental separation, parental decease, or being born to a single parent), (2) the age of the children when the different types of single-parent families were constituted, and (3) the distinction between children growing up with their biological father or biological mother in the different types of single-parent families. https://doi.org/10.1300/J087v39n01_07, Ram, B., & Hou, F. (2005). Montana has the least number of single-mom households in the US, comprising only 4.5% of households. The sex of the biological parent the adolescent lived with during the year(s) of living in a single-parent family was also included as an independent variable. The third factor is the income of the household. This is in contrast with all theories mentioned regarding the sex of the single parent combined with juvenile delinquency (Bowlbys attachment theory, the maternal hypothesis, the equality hypothesis, and the same-sex hypothesis). Most unmarried mothers (n = 531) were identified based on an entry 'unmarried' in the birth record. Because . Although a child in our study is categorized as having experienced a parental separation, which is correct, it would be great to take into account in future research whether the parents permanently separated, reunited before age 12 of the child, or reunited during the childs adolescent years. Social Problems, 57(3), 448479. Of all adolescents, those in intact married families are the least likely to commit delinquent acts. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12456, Richtlijnen Jeugdhulp (2020). Third, population register data only uses officially registered information regarding delinquency, while not all delinquent acts are registered by the police, resulting in an underestimation of the number of delinquent behaviors (Groot et al., 2007). Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Janique Kroese,Wim Bernasco&Jan Rouwendal, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), De Boelelaan 1077, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI-KNAW), Lange Houtstraat 19, 2511 CV, The Hague, the Netherlands, Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ, Groningen, the Netherlands, Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Tinbergen Institute, Gustav Mahlerplein 117, 1082 MS, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, You can also search for this author in Growing up with a single mother and life satisfaction in - PLOS Therefore, higher paternal closeness might be related to the children in single-father families, decreasing the likelihood to engage in juvenile delinquency. Based on an in-depth investigation of the validity of the registered home addresses of children of separated parents, Van der Wiel and Kooiman (2019) concluded that, in general, the registered address of children of separated parents adequately represents where children live and sleep. Family structure is a key concept in our analysis. 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. 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. For the present study, seven complete birth cohorts of individuals born in the period 19931999 were selected. Moreover, in the cohorts studied, fewer than 1.5% of all children, or 4% of those experiencing single parenthood, had spent any time with a single father by age 10/11. Vanassche et al. 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). ), Criminology theory: Selected classic readings (pp. Journal of Family Psychology, 15(3), 355. https://doi.org/10.1037//0893-3200.15.3.355, Amato, P. R., & Cheadle, J. E. (2008). Demographic Research, 36, 73110. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 49(1), 5671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-012-9699-5, Yoder, J. R., Brisson, D., & Lopez, A. Children born to a biological mother before age 20 or children born to a biological mother aged 20 to 29 were more likely to become a suspect of juvenile delinquency than children born to a biological mother aged 30 to 39.