Parenting in the Kingdom: Parenting Effects on Child Delinquency in a Sample of Saudi Arabian Youth

• In Event: Parental and Family Influences on the Development of Criminal and Delinquent Behavior

Abstract

Extensive criminological interest over time has examined the role of family functioning, structure, and its association with child delinquency. However, ongoing research has called these findings into question, recognizing that genetic effects such as intergenerational transmission and individual child traits fundamentally confound previous findings. Using a sample of high school students drawn from the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, we provide a test of family variables relative to peer network variables and individual characteristics on self reported measures of delinquent involvement. Our findings revealed that those variables representative of intergenerational transmission, such as family arrest and violence, remained significant throughout our analyses. However, contrary to contemporary theoretical assumptions, our measures of family support were found to be insignificant across all models. The theoretical implications of our findings are then discussed.

Authors

• Catherine D. Sacarellos, University of Cincinnati

• John Paul Wright, University of Cincinnati