The Challenge of Parenting Girls in Neighborhoods of Different Perceived Quality

Lia Ahonen, Rolf Loeber, Alison Hipwell and Stephanie Stepp
Additional contact information
Lia Ahonen: Life History Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, 201 N Craig Street, Suite 408, Pittsburgh, PA 15218, USA
Rolf Loeber: Life History Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, 201 N Craig Street, Suite 408, Pittsburgh, PA 15218, USA
Alison Hipwell: Life History Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, 201 N Craig Street, Suite 408, Pittsburgh, PA 15218, USA
Stephanie Stepp: Life History Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, 201 N Craig Street, Suite 408, Pittsburgh, PA 15218, USA

Societies, 2014, vol. 4, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: It is well-known that disadvantaged neighborhoods, as officially identified through census data, harbor higher numbers of delinquent individuals than advantaged neighborhoods. What is much less known is whether parents’ perception of the neighborhood problems predicts low parental engagement with their girls and, ultimately, how this is related to girls’ delinquency, including violence. This paper elucidates these issues by examining data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, including parent-report of neighborhood problems and level of parental engagement and official records and girl-reported delinquency at ages 15, 16, and 17. Results showed higher stability over time for neighborhood problems and parental engagement than girls’ delinquency. Parents’ perception of their neighborhood affected the extent to which parents engaged in their girls’ lives, but low parental engagement did not predict girls being charged for offending at age 15, 16 or 17. These results were largely replicated for girls’ self-reported delinquency with the exception that low parental engagement at age 16 was predictive of the frequency of girls’ self-reported delinquency at age 17 as well. The results, because of their implications for screening and early interventions, are relevant to policy makers as well as practitioners.

Keywords: girls; parental engagement; neighborhoods; delinquency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/4/3/414/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/4/3/414/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:4:y:2014:i:3:p:414-427:d:39141

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().