Teens In A Single Parent Household Are More Likely To Show Delinquent Behaviour

Academics in Sweden have studied research on 14- and 15-year-olds in a variety of living conditions, including living with both parents, a single parent and a adoptive parent. Some of the teens had been involved in various offenses, ranging in severity from graffiti to robbery and holding a knife as a weapon. Adolescents living in single-parent, unmarried, paternal, and paternal households reported higher delinquency than those living with both parents, academics found. The authors of the study stressed that if a teenager lives with only one of his biological parents, it does not necessarily mean that he is delinquent. As they studied results from Swedish adolescents of fairly narrow age range, further research may be needed. Adolescents living in single-parent families are more likely to exhibit “delinquent” behaviors such as shoplifting and graffiti, the study says

OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR

Self-reported delinquency was defined as any of the following committed in the last 12 months: – I hit someone – They stole someone – He carries a knife as a weapon when he goes out – Shoplifting – He stole a bicycle – He stole something from someone’s pocket or bag – He stole something from a car or broke into a car to steal something – Graffiti – Damage The new study was published this week in the open access journal PLOS One by Robert Svensson and Björn Johnson at the University of Malm. In Sweden. “This study shows that it is important to proceed to the use of more detailed categorizations of the family structure in relation to delinquency,” they state in their document. “We need to increase our knowledge of the group of teens moving between parents.” Previous studies have shown that non-cohabitation with both parents is positively associated with delinquent behaviors. However, these have been “greatly simplified”, as they only compared life with both parents to non-cohabitation with both parents, for example. For the new study, the researchers looked at the broader living arrangements of teens who did not live with both parents. They distinguished between adolescents living in either “symmetrical” or “asymmetrical” family arrangements. Symmetrical family arrangements are those where both parents are single or both parents have a new partner. Meanwhile, the “asymmetric” family arrangements are those where either the mother or the father, but not both, have a new partner. For the study, delinquent behaviors ranged in severity from graffiti to robbery and carrying a knife. The researchers used data from four synchronous surveys conducted between 2016 and 2019 in southern Sweden, which included a total of 3,838 adolescents aged 14 to 15 years. The survey was conducted in 17 secondary schools in eight small towns in the county of Skåne, the southernmost county of Sweden, with a population of about 1.4 million.
The data included information on nine delinquent behaviors – such as shoplifting, graffiti, robbery and carrying a knife outside the home – as well as detailed family structure. Compared to adolescents living with both mother and father, delinquent behavior was more common among those living with a single father, a single mother, a father and stepmother, or a mother and stepfather. Among all participants, teens in symmetrical families – where the parents live separately and share custody, but are both single or both have new partners – reported generally lower delinquency rates than those in asymmetric families. However, the experts also found that many of the correlations between family structure and delinquency diminished when adjusted for data on parental attachment and follow-up.
The researchers admit that they did not show causality in their study – in other words, they did not show that some family structures cause delinquency and others do not. Another limitation is that the sample of the study came from adolescents in a single Swedish country. Further research would ideally include a much larger sample.
Overall, the authors conclude that more accurate categorization of family structure may shed light on the factors that contribute to delinquency.

GIRLS WITH LOVE PARENTS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE FAT: STUDY 2017

Girls with single parents are twice as likely to be obese as their peers living in a two-parent household, according to a 2017 study. Researchers at the QIMR Berghofer in Brisbane, Australia, found that girls aged 12 to 17 were more likely to eat a less healthy diet in a single-parent home. He also found that these girls tend to “spend more time in sedentary behavior”, which also contributes to the higher risk of obesity. Low education and avoidance of sports were factors that contributed to obesity in all young girls in the adolescent age group, regardless of their lifestyle. And girls whose parents did not have a college education were significantly more likely to be obese. The risk only increased if they lived in a single-parent household, which made them three times more likely to be obese. The study found that junk food was not, surprisingly, the leading cause of obesity in adolescent girls. But junk food and regular packing were found to be the main reasons boys aged 5 to 11 were obese. Ready-made foods or fried foods such as burgers, pizza, sausages and chips were considered “packaged foods” in the study. The study also found that boys whose parents did not go to university were twice as likely to be obese. And, as with girls, research has found that boys who avoid sports are also at risk of gaining weight. The Brisbane Foundation looked at the different causes of obesity among young and adolescent boys and girls, researching the parents of 3,500 children. 4% of girls aged 12 to 17 were found to be obese, a number smaller than boys of the same age and girls who were younger than them. 7 percent of 12- to 17-year-old boys were found to be obese, five percent lower than five- to 11-year-old boys, and four percent lower than 5- to 11-year-old girls.
QIMR Berghofer senior biostatologist Professor Peter O’Rourke said more research was needed to find out why girls with single parents were more likely to be obese. But he added that parents need to focus on things that can easily change, such as diet and exercise. “While some factors are beyond parental control, some of the best things they can do is encourage regular exercise,” he said. O’Rourke also advised parents to provide a healthy diet with fruits and vegetables and to provide fewer packaged meals at dinner.