The Effects of Family Structure and Family Processes on Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors of Male and Female Youth: A Longitudinal Examination

Abstract

The present study examined potential gender differences in the effects of family structure and family processes on externalizing and internalizing behavioral outcomes among youth over time. Using data from waves one through three of the Add Health study, results indicated that the relationship between family structure and family processes on behavioral outcomes varied depending on the specific externalizing or internalizing behavior. Family structure directly influenced three different externalizing behaviors, but indirectly influenced internalizing behaviors through its effect on maternal attachment and to some degree parental permissiveness. The long-term influence of family structure, family processes, and later externalizing and internalizing behaviors is complex. These relationships played out similarly across both male and female youth, suggesting that the effect of living in a single-parent home, subsequent family processes, and individual behavior and well-being may not be different across gender.

Notes

¹ In addition to the social control/attachment perspective and the social control/parental absence model, two common alternative perspectives are the economic stress model and the social selection perspective to explain why family composition influences individual well-being (Amato 2005; Krohn et al. 2009). The economic stress perspective explains the link between family composition and individual well-being by emphasizing the relationship between economic hardship and exposure to stress, while the social selection explanation argues that selection factors explain variations between family composition and child behavior. We decided not to use these theoretical perspectives to help frame the present study due to the lack of appropriate measures in the dataset.

² This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristin Y. Mack

KRISTIN Y. MACK, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology at the University of Northern Iowa. Her research interests include significant life events, family relationships, and individual well-being. Her research has been published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Youth & Society, Journal of Criminal Justice, and Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.

Jennifer H. Peck

JENNIFER H. PECK, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests include the role of race and ethnicity in the juvenile justice system and criminological theory. Her recent research has been accepted for publication in Justice Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, Deviant Behavior, and Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.

Michael J. Leiber

MICHAEL J. LEIBER, Ph.D., is Chair and Professor of Criminology at the University of South Florida. His main research interests and publications lie in juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, and race/ethnicity. In 2013, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to scholarship on race, crime, and justice by the Division on People of Color and Crime, American Society of Criminology. Currently, he serves as the editor of the Midwestern Criminal Justice Association journal, the Journal of Crime & Justice.