Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Delinquency

Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Family Relations in a Youth Crime Prevention Program Evaluation

Purpose: The ways in which children are socialized in their families are strongly tied to both positive and negative developmental outcomes, and certain family characteristics increase or decrease the risk for juvenile delinquency (Herrenkohl, Maguin, Hill, Hawkins, Abbott and Catalano, 2000). Current research shows that the nature of the parent/child relationship is strongly associated with positive development of adolescents (Grossman, Beinashowitz, Anderson, Sakurai, Finnin and Flaherty, 2001; Brim, 1959) and that programs for adolescents that encourage strong parent participation are important to preventing delinquency (Herrenkohl, Maguin, Hill, Hawkins, Abbott and Catalano, 2000). More specifically, studies suggest that parenting and family interventions that decrease family conflict and improve family involvement and parental monitoring reduce problem behaviors (Mayer, 1995). The purpose of the present evaluation is to examine the extent to which parental involvement in a court-ordered family empowerment intervention for delinquent youth is related to improved family relations, including family bonding and communication, and family conflict. Methods: This evaluation uses a pre-post intervention design to establish “apparent effectiveness” of a family empowerment intervention provided by 10 community-based organizations in Miami-Dade County that work with diverted youths and their caregiver(s) with the goal of reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors for delinquent behaviors. Two independent scales were utilized to measure interim outcomes in participants’ prosocial attitudes and behavior. The Parent/Child Social Competencies-Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (Eberly, Montemayor & Flannery, 1993) was used to measure participants’ perceptions of family conflict, and the Family Bonding-Individual Protective Factor Survey (Phillips & Springer, 1992) was used to measure participants’ perceptions of family bonding and communication. Over a three-year period, 66% (n=757) of 1,138 at-risk youths and their parents both received the intervention and completed the scales within 28 days of enrollment and discharge. Results: Findings from paired samples t-tests revealed that family bonding and communication improved and family conflict decreased over the course of the intervention (p<0.05). Additionally, parent involvement in program activities was significantly correlated with an increase in family bonding and communication and a decrease in conflict at home (p<0.05). Implications for Practice: Although consistently engaging parents is frequently one of the major challenges in the implementation of family empowerment programs, these findings suggest that parental involvement plays a significant role in the success of family empowerment interventions as measured by family bonding, communication, and conflict at home, and that engagement of parents should be a primary focus of these programs. The extent to which intervention-related improvements in family relations predicts a reduction in problem behavior among delinquent youths remains to be determined.

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