Generational Status, Parent-Child Conflict, and Delinquency Among Latina Youth in Chicago

• In Event: Feminist Criminologists of Color on Coping and Survival Responses to Crime and Injustice by Girls and Women of Color

Abstract

Longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) are used to examine how the developmental context of assimilation may lead to changes in various delinquent behaviors among 300 first-, second-, and third-generation Latina youth in the 9, 12, and 15 years old cohorts residing in Chicago neighborhoods. Guided by life-course and segmented assimilation frameworks, this study investigates how neighborhood social factors and assimilation affects parent-child conflict in Latina families in ways that determine behavioral pathways among female youth of different generational statuses. Three questions will be addressed. First, do changes in delinquent behavior exist between and within Latina youth of different generational status while accounting for neighborhood context? Second, does parent-child conflict explain generational group differences and changes in delinquent behavior? Third, how do neighborhood structural and social processes buffer or amplify parent-child conflict as well as change in delinquent behavior over time?

Author

• Zahra Shekarkhar, Fayetteville State University