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A Child Effects Explanation for the Association Between Family Risk and Involvement in an Antisocial Lifestyle

Florida State University, kbeaver{at}mailer.fsu.edu

John Paul Wright

University of Cincinnati

Most dominant theories of crime and criminality underscore the saliency of the family in the etiology of offending behaviors. Recently, a small pool of research has suggested that elements of the family, especially parents, do not have a lasting impact on children. This line of inquiry argues that once the effects that the child has on the family are taken into account, the relationship between family factors and child outcomes will be reduced substantially. The authors use data from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development to test the reciprocal effects between the family and the child. The results of their structural equation models reveal that global measures of family risk have a very limited effect on adolescent involvement in an antisocial lifestyle. However, adolescent embeddedness in an antisocial lifestyle negatively affects family functioning. The authors speak of the implications of their findings.

Key Words: antisocial behavior • child effects • delinquency • family risk • parental socialization

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