PARENTING (Josh McDowell research 2005 and prior) “FAMILY STRUCTURE, FATHER CLOSENESS, AND DELINQUENCY” “In the initial bivariate test between family structure and delinquency, the expected pattern of family structure results was found for four of the five delinquency indexes (disorder being the exception), and for three of the five, the differences were either largely or completely statistically significant.” “Executive Summary” “Some of the significant findings are as follows:” “In the initial bivariate test between family structure and delinquency, the expected pattern of family structure results was found for four of the five delinquency indexes (disorder being the exception), and for three of the five, the differences were either largely or completely statistically significant. In other words, the levels of risk for weapons, violence, theft, and running away run, from highest to lowest, as follows: no-parent, single-parent, blended, and intact.”
“To begin testing the independent effects of father closeness, another multiple regression was run, adding father closeness as an additional independent variable. Father closeness was a statistically significant predictor of four of the five categories of delinquency, the exception being weapons use. Family structure still had direct effects on every variable except weapons and disorder. Interestingly, the differing effects on delinquency between intact families and blended families disappeared, and for the remainder of the paper, intact and blended families were analytically identical.”
“To further clarify the importance of father closeness, mother closeness was added as an independent variable on top of the previous regression to test if the effects of father closeness were simply a function of mother closeness, which is frequently assumed. The regression revealed that father and mother closeness each had significant effects on their own unique sets of delinquency variables. Father closeness was a significant predictor of violence, disorder, and running away. Mother closeness was a significant predictor of theft, disorder, and running away. Neither predicted weapons use. The direct effects of family structure were eliminated for all of the delinquency factors except running away, although the indirect effects remained, which were mediated through mother and father closeness. More on this follows.”
“Father closeness is independent in its effects. When controlling for all other variables including mother closeness and family structure, father closeness has statistically significant, independent effects on adolescent delinquency. Specifically, for violence, disorder, and running away, father closeness is a statistically significant and robust predictor. Interestingly, unlike the situation for drug use (as described in the companion paper), mother closeness has independent effects on several measures of delinquency, namely theft, disorder, and running away.” Parenting – Research 2005 and prior
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