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The Influences of Family Structure on Delinquency Essay

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This paper is based off of the article titled, "The Effects of Family Type, Family Relationships and Parental Role Models on Delinquency and Alcohol Use Among Flemish Adolescents." All material that is written in this paper uses information gleaned from the article. The article discusses a study of Flemish youth and how different family environments effect youth turning into delinquents as well as effecting alcohol consumption. The article explains the results of questionnaire that was administered to ten different schools in Belgium which tested 1,688 kids between the ages of twelve and eighteen. The test included an independent variable, dependent variables, mediating variables, as well as control variables. The independent …show more content…

Girls who grew up in stepfamilies were involved in more delinquent behavior compared to girls who lived in in-tact homes. For boys, living in a single parent family greatly increases the chance of delinquent behavior while living in a stepfamily does not. The test also showed that a good relationship with the mom and dad helped lower delinquent activities in girls. For boys, having a good relationship with their dad and lower conflict in the family helped lower delinquent activity. The results for alcohol showed that boys and girls who lived in broken homes had a much higher chance of becoming frequent alcohol consumers. Girls tended to drink more in single parent families while boys drink more in stepfamilies. For girls, the mother's drinking habit was the most important while for the boys the fathers drinking habit was the most important. The main conclusion from this test shows that the type of home environment a child grows up in greatly effects their actions when it comes to alcohol consumption and delinquent behavior. A good relationship with the same-sex parent was a direct correlate to less delinquent behavior. This just reinforces that fact that girls and boys growing up in broken homes need to have a strong mother or father figure to help set an example for them to follow. The test showed a strong correlation between the alcohol consumption of parents and the alcohol consumption of kids. Boys followed the

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