Although research operationalizing direct supervision in family interactional terms has supported this hypothesis, research using structural proxies for direct supervision, i.e., family size, broken home, and employed mother, has tended to show negligible effects. The direct supervision hypothesis was tested using a more parsimonious structural proxy, the ratio of adults to children in a household. It was predicted that this ratio would be negatively related to delinquency and that it would be a stronger predictor of delinquency than more common structural measures. Using data from the 1986 wave of the Monitoring the Future survey, bivariate and multivariate ordinary least squares regression models revealed that none of the structural variables, including the ratio of adults to children, predicted delinquency adequately. The results support the contention of other researchers that family structural variables are not adequate for testing specific family functional processes on which direct supervision hinges. In addition, the results suggest that understanding the influence of direct control on delinquency may be much more limited than many criminologists have assumed. A summary of delinquency items is appended. 37 references, 3 notes, and 4 tables