Unsupervised Routine Activities as a Mediator of the Parental Knowledge–Delinquency Relationship

Abstract

The principal aim of this study was to examine the relationship between parents (parental knowledge) and peers (unsupervised routine activities) in predicting delinquency. Enlisting all 1,170 male members of the Pathways to Desistance study and a causal mediation model, baseline and Wave 1 measures of parental knowledge and unsupervised routine activities were cross-lagged and then regressed onto Wave 2 delinquency. Consistent with the view that parenting precedes peer influence when it comes to predicting delinquency, the target pathway (baseline parental knowledge → Wave 1 unsupervised routine activities → Wave 2 delinquency) achieved significance and the comparison pathway (baseline unsupervised routine activities → Wave 1 parental knowledge → Wave 2 delinquency) did not. These results suggest that weak parental knowledge may increase delinquency by failing to divert the child from involvement in unsupervised routine activities with peers.

Keywords:

• parental knowledge
• unsupervised routine activities
• parent–peer interface
• delinquency

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Glenn D. Walters

Glenn D. Walters, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania where he teaches classes in corrections, criminology, substance abuse and crime, and research methods. Prior to teaching at Kutztown he spent 29 years working as a clinical psychologist in both the military and Federal Bureau of Prisons. His current research interests include causal mediation analysis, offender treatment, and the development of an overarching psychological theory of criminal behavior.