U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

How Do Young Offenders Describe Their Parents?

NCJ Number
187992
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 103-120
Author(s)
Jaana Haapasalo
Date Published
February 2001
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study took place in Finland and examined what dimensions of parenting would emerge from 89 young male inmates’ retrospective reports of parental behavior and whether family violence and parental problems in childhood were associated with later perceptions of parenting.
Abstract
The participants were between ages 16 and 22 years and had an average age of 20 years in 1994. The inmates completed the Parent Behavior Inventory (PBI) and the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS). Data on childhood family violence and parental problems came from two files. Results revealed that the PBI yielded three factors and the CTS yielded two factors for both mothers and fathers. When the analysis combined the PBI and CTS factors into a principal-components analysis, five dimensions of perceptions of parenting emerged. These included maternal rejection, paternal rejection, autonomy, control, and ineffective parenting in the family. Results also revealed that the inmates’ childhood family violence and parental problems were associated with maternal rejection, paternal rejection, and ineffective parenting in the family. Tables and 46 references (Author abstract modified)