The major difficulty in drawing conclusions about the effects of broken homes on juvenile delinquency relates to the variability and inconsistency of the research findings. The 50 studies analyzed dealt with juvenile delinquency, divorce, single parenthood, and family separation research performed between 1925 to 1985 with a majority of the work done between the 1960s and 1970s. The inconsistencies reflect methodological variations in sampling, broken home measurement, delinquency measurement, police reports, self-reported questionnaires, and global indices. This analysis indicates that most of the variation in reported effects across the 50 studies is a result of methodological rather than substantive features. Future research should include additional meta analysis of related questions about family structures and processes together with original research on questions not fully addressed in the existing studies. 5 tables, 1 figure, and 115 references