Discuss how divorce and parental deviance affect delinquency. Explain your view on this theory

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Divorce may influence children's misbehavior through its effect on parental misbehavior.
• Developmental/life-course theorists, such as Sampson and Laub believe that a good marriage helps men "knife off" from misbehavior. If marriage helps subdue antisocial behavior, then it stands to reason that divorce may encourage parental deviance.
• Anger and rage that may have precipitated the dissolution of marriage may not be alleviated by separation. Research shows that domestic violence that may have been present in stress-filled marriages does not abate after separation but merely shifts to ex-partners who are targeted in the aftermath of divorce.
• Parents who are in post-divorce turmoil may influence their children to misbehave.
• Jaffee and her associates studied the quality of marriage and found that the less time fathers lived with their children, the more conduct problems their children had.
• However, when fathers engaged in high levels of antisocial behavior themselves, the more time they spent with their children, the more conduct problems their children had.
• Jaffee concluded that staying married may not be the answer to the problems faced by children living in single-parent families unless parents can refrain from deviant behaviors and become reliable sources of emotional and economic support.
• Student views will vary.