The Relation between Parental Control and Delinquent Behavior
among Adolescents on Aruba
Master thesis Forensische Orthopedagogiek
Graduate School of Child Development and Education University of Amsterdam
M.J. Broekman
Student number: 10024689 Thesis Mentor: E. Kornelis Second Reader: G.J.J.M. Stams Amsterdam, July 2019
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Abstract
This study focused on the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents on Aruba. In addition, this study examined the influences of the gender of the parents and a combination of the gender of the parents with the gender of the adolescents on the relation between parental control and delinquency. A total of 909 adolescents, between 10 and 17 years old, were interviewed at home by a trained interviewer. Results showed that the total parental control by both parents was not associated with delinquent behavior among adolescents on Aruba. However, when parental control of both parents was taken into account, a significant influence was found. The adolescents commit more crimes when they experienced high levels of parental control by father or high levels of parental control by mother and low levels of parental control by the other parent. When the adolescents experienced high levels of parental control by both father and mother, they commit less crimes. Finally, the difference between parental control by a parent of the same sex as the adolescent and parental control by a parent of the opposite sex did not account for differences in delinquent behavior among adolescents on Aruba. This study shows that when there are two parents involved, the amount of control by the parents interacts and influences the relation between parental control and delinquency, which is important to take into account in further research.
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One of the most common subjects in research on juvenile delinquency is the etiology of juvenile delinquency. In order to develop effective interventions and prevention programs it is important to know what factors predict delinquent behavior. In 2011 Hellen van der Wal conducted a cross-sectional study on the etiology of delinquency among adolescents on Aruba. This study was the first extensive study on delinquent behavior among adolescents on the island. The study provided specific proposals for the realizations of a policy for prevention of juvenal delinquency on Aruba in accordance with the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’.
Van der Wal (2011) studied the risk and protective factors for delinquency among
adolescents on Aruba. Risk factors are defined as events, circumstances or characteristics, which are associated with a statistical significant chance of the occurrence of problems in the
development of children (Hermanns, 1987; Loeber et al., 2001, 2010). There are two types of risk factors: static (historical) risk factors and dynamic risk factors. Static risk factors are defined as risk factors that cannot be modified. Dynamic risk factors are defined as risk factors that can be modified (Bonta, 2002). In addition to the distinction between static and dynamic risk factors, there is also a distinction between individual risk factors and contextual risk factors. Individual risk factors are also known as individual characteristics. Most of the individual risk factors develop on an early age (Farrington & Welsh, 2007; Loeber & Farrington, 2001). Contextual risk factors are also known as social risk factors or external risk factors. Contextual risk factors are events or circumstances in the environment of the person.
Delinquency is caused by a complex combination of the different kinds of risk factors. The suggestion that interactions between individuals and their environment determine people’s development over time, was the base of Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Bioecological Model of
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Development. Loeber et al. (2006, 2008) applied Bronfenbrenner’s model to anti-social behavior.
Van der Wal’s (2011) research revealed twelve unique risk factors for delinquency. The fact that they are unique means that those risk factors increase the chance of the occurrence of delinquent behavior. Those twelve risk factors are: disruptive behavior, using alcohol during the week, drug use, a lack of parental control by the mother, grade retention, suspension, truancy, delinquent behavior of friends and unstructured leisure activities both during the week as during the weekend (Van der Wal, 2011). Although the research of Van de Wal (2011) already provided a lot of information, Van der Wal did not examine the relations that were found between the risk factors and delinquency in more detail. The present study will further explore the relation
between delinquency and one of the risk factors that was found, namely parental control. In the general sense, delinquent behavior is a term that is used for different types of behavior which are illegal and could lead to a conviction. There are two types of criminal
offences: violations and felonies. Violations are mild forms of criminal offences like for example public drunkenness and traffic violations. Felonies are serious offences like for example burglary and assault. Until the age of twelve children in The Netherlands, and therefore also on Aruba, cannot get convicted (Van der Laan & Blom, 2006).In this research a broader definition of ‘delinquent behavior’ will be used, so that children under the age of twelve can also be included.
It is widely acknowledged that parents can influence their children’s behavior, including their possible delinquent behavior. The main functions of parents are to provide a nurturing, protective environment for their children’s development, to provide structure and to transfer knowledge, norms and values. So, parenting could be defined by support and control (Van der Wal, 2011). According to Patterson, DeBaryshe and Ramsey (1989) parental control is of crucial
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importance for preventing delinquent behavior. Parental control consists out of several elements. It includes supervision of the children, monitoring the children’s free time and control over their decision-making (Harris-McKoy, 2016; Harris-McKoy & Cui, 2013). So, parental control is a dynamic and contextual risk factor. Parental control is also a multidimensional construct which can be divided into different types. A common distinction is the one between authoritative control and authoritarian control (Baumrind, 1968, 1971). Authoritative control is child-oriented and consists of inductive discipline techniques, which means that there is room for the child’s view. Authoritarian control is parent-oriented and consists of deductive discipline techniques, which means that the rules are created by the parents without consulting the view of the child. Those rules are mostly maintained by using a system of punishment and reward (Baumrind, 1968, 1971). Baumrind (1966) concluded that authoritative control has mostly positive effects on the child’s behavior whereas authoritarian control has mostly negative effects.
However, according to some other studies this distinction might be outdated (Barber, 1996; Hoeve et al., 2009). Research showed that especially consistency in discipline leads to lower levels of delinquent behavior among adolescents (Coughlin and Vuchinich, 1996). This conclusion suggests that deductive discipline techniques could also have a positive effect on the child’s behavior. Therefore, nowadays four types of parenting styles are used: (a) authoritative, (b) authoritarian (c) permissive, and (d) neglecting. An authoritative parenting style consists of high levels of support and control. An authoritarian parenting style consists of low levels of support and high levels of control. A permissive parenting style consists of high levels of support and low levels of control. Finally, a neglecting parenting style consists of low levels of support and control (Maccoby and Martin, 1983). Previous studies showed that the permissive parenting
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style and the neglecting parenting style are especially associated with negative effects on the behavior of adolescents. In conclusion, the role of parental control seems an important factor.
Over the past few years there is an increasing interest in the influence of parental control, especially related to delinquent behavior. Both in the Netherlands and in the United States of America significant research has been done on the influence of parental control on juvenal delinquency. However, the findings of the research differ between the two countries. Therefore, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the relation between parental control and delinquent behavior.
Van der Wal’s (2011) research was based on the WODC Monitor Zelfgerapporteerde Jeugdcriminaliteit 2005 (Van der Laan & Blom, 2006), which was conducted in The
Netherlands. The research of Van der Laan and Blom (2006) concluded there was no significant difference between non-delinquents, minor delinquents and severe delinquents regarding the amount of parental control.
Keijsers, Branje, Van der Valk and Meeus (2010) conducted a longitudinal study on the relation between parental control and delinquency among Dutch adolescents. In contrast to research conducted in the United States of America, the results showed no relation between parental control and delinquency. According to Keijsers et al. (2010) the fact that there was no relation between parental control and delinquency, could be explained by the fact that
adolescents have a more pronounced influence on their parents than the parents on the
adolescents. This in turn could be explained by adolescents’ disclosure, which was classified as a powerful tool for adolescents to influence the behavior of their parents. A side note to this
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between 13 and 16 years old, the age range is fairly small and only includes the ‘older’ adolescents.
Rekker, Keijsers, Branje, Koot and Meeus (2017) conducted another longitudinal study among adolescents in the Netherlands. In this study the relation between parental control and delinquency, between and within the adolescents over time, was examined. The results regarding the differences between adolescents showed no relation between parental control and
delinquency. On the other hand, the results did show a positive relation between parental control and delinquency within the adolescents. This means that adolescents will have a greater chance of showing delinquent behavior when the amount of parental control increases over time. According to Rekker et al. (2017) adolescents who already show some negative behavior could trigger more parental control, which in turn will lead to even more negative behavior.
In the United States of America Harris-McKoy and Cui (2013) conducted a longitudinal research on the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents. The results showed a positive relation between a lack of parental control and delinquent behavior in young adulthood. These results counted for both concurrent and longitudinal analysis (Harris-McKoy & Cui, 2013).
In 2016 Harris-McKoy conducted another longitudinal study on the relation between parental control and delinquency. The research explored the relation between parental control and delinquency in greater detail. This was triggered by Nye’s social control theory. Nye (1958) suggested that, besides a lack of parental control, also high levels of parental control could lead to delinquent behavior. According to Nye (1958) adolescents not only need their parents to develop themselves, but they also need socialization with peers. High levels of parental control could prevent adolescents to interact with peers. Therefore, adolescents may engage in
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delinquent activities to satisfy their need of peer socialization. So, according to Nye’s (1958) social control theory, the relation between parental control and delinquency is curvilinear. Only average levels of parental control would lead to less delinquent behavior (Nye, 1958). Harris-McKoy (2016) concluded, as predicted by Nye’s theory, that high and low levels of parental control were related to higher levels of delinquency. Additionally, Nye’s theory about average levels of parental control was endorsed by the results of Harris-McKoy’s (2016) research.
Several studies indicate the importance to analyze the role of the parents separately for each parent (Van Widenfelt, Goedhart, Treffers & Goodman, 2008). The parents’ style of upbringing does not necessarily has to be equal. Evidently, differences in parental style also apply to the amount of parental control by each parent. For delinquency among adolescents in particular, several studies in which the role of parents was analyzed separately showed different outcomes for delinquency (Van Widenfelt et al., 2008). Van der Wal’s (2011) research showed comparable results among adolescents on Aruba. A relation was found between lack of parental control and delinquency. However, this correlation was stronger when it concerned a lack of parental control by the mother than parental control by the father (Van de Wall, 2011).
Hoeve et al. (2009) also analyzed the role of parents on delinquent behavior and the differences between fathers and mothers. The study focused to a small extent on parental control, and mainly on parental support. The results showed that a lack of parental support by the father was more strongly related to delinquency than a lack of parental support by the mother (Hoeve et al., 2009). This result confirms the idea that it could be important to analyze the role of parents separately for each parent. Furthermore, Hoeve et al. (2009) also examined whether parents had more influence on a child with the same sex than on a child of the opposite sex. The results showed that there was a stronger correlation between a lack of support and delinquency in
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sex parent-child pairs than in different-sex parent-child pairs (Hoeve et al., 2009). According to Laible and Carlo (2004) this could be explained by the fact that children have the tendency to identify themselves with the same-sex parent. A good relationship with this parent could be seen as a protective factor for delinquent behavior (Laible and Carlo, 2004). As mentioned before, the study of Hoeve et al. (2009) focused mainly on parental support. The question remains if these findings also apply to the relation between parental control and delinquent behavior.
The current study focuses on the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents on Aruba. From previous mentioned studies no clear conclusions can be drawn about this relation. Except Harris-McKoy (2016) none of the other mentioned studies examined the option of a curvilinear relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents. However, the idea was supported by the social control theory of Nye (1958). So theoretically this hypotheses seems to be the most interesting to explore. It is expected to find a curvilinear relation between parental control and delinquency.
Secondly, the current study examines whether there is a distinction between parental control by the father and parental control by the mother. As mentioned before, there are several studies who indicate the importance to analyze the role of the parents separately (Van der Wal, 2011; Van Widenfelt, Goedhart, Treffers & Goodman, 2008). In view of Van der Wal’s (2011) findings, it is expected to find a stronger relation between parental control by the mother and delinquency than between parental control by the father and delinquency.
Thirdly, the current study examines whether there is a distinction between parental control on a child with the same sex and parental control on a child with the opposite sex. As mentioned before Hoeve et al. (2009) already examined this distinction for parental support. In view of Hoeve et al. (2009) results and Laible and Carlo’s (2004) theory, it is expected to find a
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stronger relation between parental control and delinquency in same-sex parent-child pairs than between parental control and delinquency in cross-gender parent-child pairs.
Method Survey
The data used for this study were derived from the ‘Youth Lifestyle Survey Aruba’ (YLS). YLS was a cross sectional study, based on self-reports, which was conducted on Aruba in 2007 by the ‘Stichting Maatschappij en Criminaliteit’ (SMC). The study was conducted among adolescents and young adolescents living on Aruba. The respondents were selected from the ‘Bevolkingsregister van Aruba’ (BRA). The BRA is a digital system containing the personal data of all the legal residents of Aruba. In July 2007 the ‘Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek’ (CBS) drew a sample from the BRA. In this sample, the CBS took the geographical distribution and the population density of the different areas of Aruba into account. The sample consisted of 1.400 adolescents. Of those 1.400 adolescents, 201 were not approached, for example because the address was incorrect.
In total 20 trained interviewers were involved in the study. Prior to the fieldwork, the interviewers were trained by using a method which was specially designed by SMC for this study. The training consisted of three sessions. The most crucial aspect of the training was to establish awareness of the importance of the confidentiality of the collected data.
In September and October of 2007, the adolescents and their parents were approached by one of the trained interviewers. Participation in the study was voluntary. The adolescents and their parents received a letter with an explanation of the study. The interviewer provided further explanation where needed. The letter was also used as consent form. The parents needed to give their consent by signing the letter. On the day the interview took place, the adolescents needed to
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give their consent for participation and the use of the obtained information. Of the 1.199 approached adolescents, 1.080 adolescents participated in the study. This makes the response rate of this study 77%. However, if the 201 adolescents who were not approached were not taken into account, the response rate of the study would be even higher, namely 90%. According to Babbie (1992) this response rate can be qualified as very good. Even according to Voogt’s (2004) stricter rules, the response rate of this study can be qualified as good.
Participants
For the purpose of the present study, a sample of 909 participants was drawn from the 1.080 participants of the YLS. Because this study is focused on parental control, the participating adolescents must have at least one parent or someone who fulfills that role. The question
regarding this subject was answered by 1.038 respondents. Of those 1.038 respondents, 25 said they did not have a parent or someone who fulfills that role. So, 1.013 participants answered that they had at least one parent or someone who fulfills this role. However, the questions regarding parental control were answered only by 909 participants. In response to this difference, the sample was constituted based on the questions regarding parental control by father or mother. So, 171 participants were excluded from the study because they did not answer any of the questions regarding parental control.
At the time the interviews took place, the age of the participants varied between the age of 10 and 17, with an average of 14 (SD = 2.16). Approximately the same amount of boys and girls participated in the study, respectively 53.8% and 46.2%. Of the participants 73.2% still had both parents in their life. However, 24.4% of the participants had only a mother in their life and 2.4% had only a father in their life. The majority of the participants was born on Aruba, namely 76.9%. In addition, 6.1% was born in Colombia, 5.6% in the Netherlands, 3.3% in Venezuela,
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1.3% in the Netherlands Antilles, 1.3% in Suriname, 1.1% in the Dominican Republic and 1% in Haiti.
Procedure
The adolescents were interviewed in their own homes. There were no other people present during the interview other than the participant and the interviewer. The interview took approximately one to two hours. The study material was available in four languages, namely Dutch, Papiamento, English and Spanish. Most of the questions were asked by the interviewer. The participants filled some of the more sensitive questions in by themselves. According to Segers (1999) the answers will be more reliable and trustworthy this way.
Measures
As mentioned before, the data used for this study, was derived from the ‘Youth Lifestyle Survey Aruba’ (YLS). The questionnaire of the YLS was in turn based on the WODC Monitor Zelfgerapporteerde Jeugdcriminaliteit 2005 (Van der Laan & Blom, 2006).
Parental Control
Parental control was measured individually for fathers and mothers. The amount of parental control by fathers or mothers was measured by five statements. The participants had to indicate how often they had experienced those statements. The participants could choose from five different answers, which represented an increasing frequency. If the participants could not answer the question, they were able to point that out. During the analyses, those answers were labeled as missing values.
The total score for the amount of parental control by fathers is a combined score of the individual scores on the five statements regarding father. The reliability of the scale ‘Parental
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Control by Father’ was qualified as good, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of .83. If participants obtained a high score, they experienced high levels of parental control by their father.
The total score for the amount of parental control by mothers is a combined score of the individual scores on the five statements regarding mother. The reliability of the scale ‘Parental Control by Mother’ was qualified as acceptable, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of .76. If participants obtained a high score, they experienced high levels of parental control by their mother.
The total score for the amount of parental control is a combined score of the scales ‘Parental Control by Father’ and ‘Parental Control by Mother’. However, not all of the
participants had two parents. So by combining the two scales, the participants who had just one parent were only able to score half of the possible maximum score. This would have given a distorted view on parental control by both parents. To solve this problem, the total score for parental control of participants who had two parents was divided by two. The reliability of the scale ‘Parental Control’ was qualified as good, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of .85. If participants obtained a high score, they experienced high levels of parental control.
In addition, in this study also was examined whether there is a distinction between
parental control by the father and parental control by the mother, as well as a possible distinction between parental control on a child with the same sex and parental control on a child with the opposite sex. To be able to do this, it was necessary to separate the participants who did have both parents from the ones who did not have both parents. Only for the participants who did have both parents the previous mentioned distinctions were examined. Of the 909 participants in the total sample, 244 participants did not have both parents. So, the questions regarding the
distinction between parental control by the father and parental control by the mother, and the distinction between parental control on a child with the same sex and parental control on a child
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with the opposite sex were only answered for the 665 participants who had both parents. For those adolescents, the previously mentioned ratios for age, gender and origin remained roughly the same.
Delinquent Behavior
The amount of delinquent behavior was questioned by 39 different criminal offences. The 39 criminal offences were subdivided over seven categories, namely (a) destruction and public order offences, (b) crimes against property, (c) aggression or violent crimes, (d) armed crimes, (e) cybercrime, (f) drug crimes, and (g) violations. Eventually, 37 of those criminal offences were used to measure delinquent behavior. For each of the criminal offences, the participants had to say if they ever had committed that crime (lifetime prevalence). If the participants answered positive, they had to say how often they committed that crime during the last 12 months (period prevalence and frequency) and how old they were when they committed that crime for the first time (onset).
The scale that measured delinquent behavior was conducted in the same way as it was conducted in the studies by Van der Laan and Blom (2006) and Van der Wal (2011). Following these studies, the scale was conducted based on the severity and the frequency of someone’s delinquent behavior. Regarding the score for severity, Van der Wal (2011) conducted a
subdivision between minor crimes and serious crimes (Table 1). The division was based on the sentence and rarity of the crime. Minor crimes were given a severity score of 1. Serious crimes were given a severity score of 3.
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Table 1
Division between minor and serious crimes (Van der Wal, 2011)
Minor crimes Serious crimes
Sending messages to scare Spreading viruses
Insulting; skin colour Soft drugs
Fighting; skin colour Party drugs
Insulting; different neighborhood Hard drugs
Fighting; different neighborhood Damaging a property
Insulting; sexual orientation Shoplifting (more than 10 florin)
Fighting; sexual orientation Stolen a bicycle, scooter, moped or quad bike
Damaging a vehicle Stolen a car
Damaging something else Stolen something from a locked car
Graffiti Burglary
Swapping price tags Pickpocketing
Shoplifting (less than 10 florin) Threatening (in order to steal) Stolen something in school/at work Using violence (in order to steal)
Embezzlement Beating a person (injured)
Fencing (buying) Injuring someone with a weapon
Fencing (reselling) Involuntary sex
Threating (in order to scare) Beating a person (not injured) Carrying a weapon during a night out Insulting; different country
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Regarding the frequency, the participants were asked about the frequency of their delinquent behavior through an open question. These answers were subdivided into five
categories, namely (a) not, (b) one time, (c) two up to four times, (d) five up to ten times and (e) eleven times or more. During the construction of the score for frequency, the severity of the crime was taken into account. So, participants who frequently committed a minor crime got a lower frequency score than participants who frequently committed a serious crime (Table 2). Table 2
Frequency-scores, divided by severity (Van der Wal, 2011)
Not 1 time 2-4 times 5-10 times ≥ 11 times
Minor Crimes 0 1 1 2 2
Serious Crimes 0 1 2 3 4
After conducting a severity and frequency score for each crime, the scores were multiplied by each other. This resulted into a severity*frequency score for each crime, with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 12. Finally, the delinquency score per person was calculated by combining the severity*frequency scores of the 37 crimes. The delinquency score per person had a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 112, with a mean of 3.19 (SD = 8.37). Because of the outliers of this scale, the results could have given a somewhat distorted view. Therefore, for every delinquency score the square root was calculated. Those square roots were used as delinquency scores instead of the original scores. If participants obtained a low score on the delinquency scale, they did not commit a crime or they committed a few minor crimes. If
participants obtained a high score on the delinquency scale, they committed a lot of minor crimes or multiple serious crimes.
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Data Analyses
The data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 23, 2015). To gain more insight into the sample, the descriptive statistics of all the factors involved in this study were obtained from the data.
Primarily, the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents on Aruba were examined. This relation was in the first place examined with a scatterplot. Secondly this relation was examined with a linear regression analysis. When the p-value was smaller than the significance level (α = .05) parental control had an influence on delinquency among the adolescents. In addition, this study also took the gender of the parents and a combination of the gender of the parents with the gender of the adolescents into account. Whether these factors had any influence on the relation between parental control and delinquency was examined with an ‘Analysis of Variance’ (ANOVA). When the p-values were smaller than the significance level (α = .05) previous mentioned factors had an influence on the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents on Aruba.
Results
In order to gain insight into the amount of delinquent behavior and parental control, the average scores, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores were obtained (Table 3). These descriptive statistics revealed that overall the adolescents on Aruba did not committed many crimes, minor or serious. Of all the participating adolescents, 57.2% even did not committed a crime.
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Table 3
Descriptive Statistics of Delinquent Behavior and Parental Control (N=909)
Mean N SD Minimum Maximum
Delinquent Behavior .99 909 1.49 0 10.58
Parental Control 17.64 909 6.18 1 25
Since this study also examined the differences between parental control by mother and parental control by father, including the possible influence of the gender of the adolescent, the average scores, standard deviations, maximum scores and minimum scores of this distinct group were obtained (Table 4). These descriptive statistics revealed that adolescents on Aruba
experience more parental control from their mothers than from their fathers. As mentioned before, approximately the same amount of boys and girls participated in the study. Furthermore, a large proportion of the both boys and girls did not committed a crime, respectively 54.2% and 60.7%.
Table 4
Descriptive Statistics of Delinquent Behavior and Parental Control by Fathers and Mothers (N=665°)
Mean N SD Minimum Maximum
Delinquent Behavior .98 665 1.43 0 10.58
Parental Control 17.62 665 5.96 1 25
Parental Control by Father 16.80 665 6.71 1 25
Parental Control by Mother 18.45 665 6.10 1 25
Sex of the Adolescents 1.46 665 .499 1 2
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Firstly, the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents on Aruba was examined. Based on the previous studies, instead of a linear relation, it was expected to find a curvilinear relation between parental control and delinquent behavior. As shown in Figure 1, there was no curvilinear relation between parental control by both parents and delinquent behavior among adolescents on Aruba. Therefore the relation between parental control and delinquency was examined with a linear regression analysis. There was also no significant relation between parental control by both parents and delinquent behavior among adolescents on Aruba. So adolescents who experienced high levels of parental control did not commit more or less crimes than adolescents who experienced low levels of parental control.
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Secondly, the possible distinction between the relation of parental control by mother and delinquent behavior, and the relation of parental control by father and delinquent behavior was examined. This possible distinction was examined with an ANOVA. As shown in Table 6, there was no significant relation between parental control by either of the parents and delinquent behavior among adolescents on Aruba. So adolescents who experienced high levels of parental control by either their father or their mother did not commit more or less crimes than adolescents who experienced low levels of parental control.
Table 6
ANOVA of Delinquent Behavior out of Parental Control by Fathers and Mothers (N=665°)
Delinquent Behavior
B SE B t p-value
Parental Control by Father -.023 .012 -1.89 .059
Parental Control by Mother .017 .013 1.25 .212
° Only adolescents who had both parents
There was, however, a chance that parental control by father and parental control by mother correlated strongly and possibly had an influence on each other. Therefore, the correlation between parental control by father and parental control by mother was calculated. There was a significant (p < .001) correlation of .73 between parental control by father and parental control by mother. So the more parental control the adolescents experienced from their father, the more parental control the adolescents experienced from their mother, and the other way around. This finding suggests there is an interaction between parental control by father and parental control by mother. For this reason, once again the possible distinction between the relation of parental control by mother and delinquent behavior, and the relation of parental
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control by father and delinquent behavior was examined with an ANOVA. Only this time the interaction between parental control by father and parental control by mother was taken into account.
As shown in Table 7, there was a significant and positive relation between both parental control by father and parental control by mother and delinquent behavior. So, in this model, adolescents who experienced more parental control by father committed more crimes than adolescents who experienced low levels of parental control by father. Also, in this model, adolescents who experienced more parental control by mother committed more crimes than adolescents who experienced low levels of parental control by mother. The part of the variance of delinquent behavior which was explained by parental control by father and parental control by mother was also significant, respectively R² = .017, F(1, 664) = 5.13, p = .024 and R² = .017, F(1, 664) = 10.96, p = .001.
There was also a significant relation between the interaction of parental control by father with parental control by mother and delinquent behavior. The relation between the interaction and delinquent behavior was negative. So, adolescents who experienced high levels of parental control by father and high levels of parental control by mother committed less crimes than adolescents who experienced low levels of parental control by father and low levels of parental control by mother. The part of the variance of delinquent behavior which was explained by the interaction was also significant, R² = .017, F(1, 664) = 11.03, p = .001.
To demonstrate what kind of effect this interaction of parental control by father with parental control by mother has on delinquent behavior, a plot was made by using the Interaction Package of R (Long, 2019). To make this plot, parental control by mother was divided into three levels: (a) adolescents who experienced an above-average amount of parental control by mother,
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(b) adolescents who experienced an average amount of parental control by mother and (c) adolescents who experienced a below-average amount of parental control by mother. As shown in Figure 2, there is a slightly negative relation between delinquent behavior and parental control by father for the adolescents who experienced an average amount of parental control by mother. In addition, there is a larger negative relation between delinquent behavior and parental control by father for the adolescents who experienced an above-average amount of parental control by mother. Conversely, there is a positive relation between delinquent behavior and parental control by father for the adolescents who experienced a below-average amount of parental control by mother.
So when the adolescents experienced an equal amount of parental control by both parents, especially when the adolescents experienced high levels of parental control, they
committed less crimes than when the experienced amount of parental control by both parents was different for each parent. This effect of different parental control by both parents seems to be stronger when adolescents experienced high levels of parental control by mother and low levels of parental control by father, than when adolescents experienced high levels of parental control by father and low levels of parental control by mother.
Table 7
ANOVA of Delinquent Behavior out of Parental Control with Interaction (N=665°)
Delinquent Behavior
B SE B t p-value
Parental Control by Father .067 .030 2.26 .024
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Parental Control Father x Parental Control Mother - .004 .001 - 3.32 .001 ° Only adolescents who had both parents
Figure 2. Plot Delinquent Behavior out of Parental Control with Interaction (N=665)
Thirdly, the influence of the gender of the adolescents on the relation between parental control and delinquent behavior was examined. This possible influence was examined with an ANOVA. Both the influence of the gender of adolescents on the relation between parental control by father on delinquency, as the influence of the gender of adolescents on the relation between parental control by mother on delinquency were not significant. So, for both boys and girls the amount of parental control by father had no influence on their delinquent behavior. Also, for both boys and girls the amount of parental control by mother had no influence on their delinquent behavior.
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Discussion
This study focused on the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents. The study concentrated only on adolescents who were residents of Aruba.
Furthermore, this study examined whether there is a distinction between parental control by the father and parental control by the mother in the relation with delinquency. Finally, this study examined whether results are different for same-sex parent-child pairs compared to different-sex parent-child pairs.
Firstly, this study has revealed that adolescents who experienced high levels of parental control did not commit more or less crimes than adolescents who experienced low levels of parental control. As for the possible distinction between parental control by father and parental control by mother, only when the interaction between those two was taken into account there was a relation between parental control by father and parental control by mother with delinquent behavior, although this study revealed that there was no distinction between parental control by the father and parental control by the mother. However, this study showed that when the
adolescents experienced an equal amount of parental control by both parents, especially when the adolescents experienced high levels of parental control, they committed less crimes than when they experienced a different amount of parental control by each parent. Finally, this study revealed that the relation between parental control and delinquency in same-sex parent-child pairs didn’t differ from the relation between parental control and delinquency in cross-gender parent-child pairs.
The findings regarding the relation between parental control and delinquency among adolescents do not correspond with the assumptions made based on the existing literature to the extent that in this study there was no relation found between parental control and delinquency
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(Harris-McKoy, 2016; Harris-McKoy & Cui, 2013; Keijsers et al., 2010; Nye, 1958; Rekker et al., 2017; Van der Wal, 2011). However, the fact that the results did not show a relation between parental control and delinquency is consistent with the results from the studies that were
conducted in The Netherlands (Keijsers et al., 2010; Rekker et al., 2017). Aruba is officially part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Therefore, Aruba has a lot of influences from the Dutch culture and the Dutch social habits. This could be a possible explanation for the fact that the results of this study match the results of the Dutch literature on control and delinquency (Keijsers et al., 2010; Rekker et al., 2017) and do not concur with results of the American literature
(Harris-McKoy, 2016; Harris-McKoy & Cui, 2013).
Secondly, the findings regarding the possible distinction between parental control by father and parental control by mother do not correspond with the assumptions made based on the existing literature (Van der Wal, 2011; Van Widenfelt, Goedhart, Treffers & Goodman, 2008). This study did not reveal a stronger relation between parental control by the mother and
delinquency in comparison with parental control by the father and delinquency. One of the major differences between Van de Wal’s (2011) research and the current study is the fact that Van der Wal (2011) used two different analyses to examine on the one hand the relation of parental control by fathers and delinquency and on the other hand the relation of parental control by mothers and delinquency. So, the distinction between parental control by father and parental control by mother was examined for all the participants. In the current study the distinction between mothers and fathers was only examined for the participants who did have both parents, approximately three-quarters of the participants. In this way, it was attempted to correct for a possible distinction in parental control because of the fact that some adolescents only had one parent. Furthermore, another major difference between Van der Wal’s (2011) research and the
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current study is the fact that Van der Wal (2011) divided all the factors into different levels. In Van der Wal’s (2011) study parental control is divided into two levels (low versus high control) and delinquent behavior is divided into three levels (no delinquency, minor delinquency and severe delinquency). In the current study those levels were not used. In this way, it was
attempted to get the most accurate results. In addition, in contrast to previous research, this study took the interaction between parental control by father and parental control by mother into account. Parental control by father and parental control by mother might interact, and in this way it was attempted to get the most reliable reflection of the relation between parental control and delinquency. So, these three differences could be a possible explanation for the fact that the results of this study do not match the results of Van der Wal’s (2011) research. Besides these methodological differences there could also be a theoretical explanation for the results. Perhaps when parents are not on the same page regarding the amount of control they practice, some other factor may have an influence on the relation between parental control and delinquent behavior. There may be a problematic family situation for example. For further research it could be interesting to examine this possibility.
Finally, the findings regarding the possible distinction between parental control in same sex and opposite sex parent-child pairs do not correspond with the assumption made based on the existing literature (Hoeve et al., 2009; Laible & Carlo, 2004). This study did not reveal a stronger relation between parental control and delinquency in same-sex parent-child pairs than between parental control and delinquency in cross-gender parent-child pairs. However, the study of Hoeve et al. (2009) focused mainly on parental support instead of parental control. So possibly the idea that there is a stronger relation between parental control and delinquency in same-sex parent-child pairs than between parental control and delinquency in cross-gender parent-child
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pairs only exists for parental support and not for parental control. Laible and Carlo (2004) concluded that children have the tendency to identify themselves with the same-sex parent and that a good relationship with this parent could be seen as a protective factor for delinquent behavior. Perhaps the fact that this study found no distinction between parental control for children with the same sex and parental control for children with the opposite sex could be explained by the fact that parental support is an important factor into the establishment of a good relationship between parents and their children, because it consists of factors such as attachment and love. Parental control on the other hand consists of monitoring and supervision (Harris-McKoy, 2016; Harris-McKoy & Cui, 2013), which has less influence than parental support on the establishment of a good relationship between parents and their children.
Despite the strengths of the current study, such as a large sample and a good balance between boys and girls, this study also has a few limitations. As mentioned before it is not clear what kind of crime someone committed and how often they committed that crime. For further research it could be interesting to take into account the kind and frequency of the crime. In addition, in this study parental control by fathers and mothers was measured by only five
statements. Perhaps this could mean that not all of the aspects of parental control were taken into account. If that would be the case, it would be possible that the score of parental control is not a true reflection of the actual experienced parental control among adolescents on Aruba. Therefore, for further research it is recommended to expand the amount of questions regarding parental control.
In conclusion, among adolescents on Aruba there is a relation between parental control and delinquency when the interaction between parental control by father and parental control by mother is taken into account. When the adolescents experience an equal amount of parental
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control by both parents, especially when the adolescents experience high levels of parental control, they committed less crimes than when they experienced a different amount of parental control by each parent. For the adolescents on Aruba counts that the distinction between parental control by a parent of the same sex as opposed to parental control by a parent of the opposite sex didn’t moderate the relation between parental control and delinquent behavior. The current study puts a new focus on the relation between parental control and delinquency, because of the fact that it shows that when there are two parents involved, the amount of control by the parents interacts and influences the relation between parental control and delinquency. It is important to take this interaction between parental control by father and parental control by mother into account in further research. Finally, this study focused solely on parental control, but it could be interesting to examine the effect of parental control in combination with parental support to get an even more clear view of the way that parents influence their children on Aruba.
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