The challenge of parenting girls in neighborhoods of different perceived quality

• It is well-known that disadvantaged neighborhoods, as officially identifiedthrough census data, harbor higher numbers of delinquent individuals than advantagedneighborhoods. What is much less known is whether parents’ perception of the neighborhoodproblems predicts low parental engagement with their girls and, ultimately, how this isrelated to girls’ delinquency, including violence. This paper elucidates these issues byexamining data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, including parent-report of neighborhoodproblems and level of parental engagement and official records and girl-reporteddelinquency at ages 15, 16, and 17. Results showed higher stability over time forneighborhood problems and parental engagement than girls’ delinquency. Parents’ perceptionof their neighborhood affected the extent to which parents engaged in their girls’ lives,but low parental engagement did not predict girls being charged for offending at age 15, 16or 17. These results were largely replicated for girls’ self-reported delinquency with theexception that low parental engagement at age 16 was predictive of the frequency of girls’self-reported delinquency at age 17 as well. The results, because of their implications forscreening and early interventions, are relevant to policy makers as well as practitioners.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Juridik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Law (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

girls; parental engagement; neighborhoods; delinquency

Juridik

Law

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)