Date of Award
5-2002
Honors Thesis Number
13373
Major
Psychology
Faculty Advisor
Cashel, Mary Louise
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relations between Diana Baumrind's (1971) parenting styles and juvenile delinquency. The Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991) was used to assess parenting style. The Self Reported Delinquency Survey (Elliot & Ageton, 1980) was used to determine delinquency levels in adolescents. There were 63 participants with ages ranging from 14 to middle twenties. The participants were asked to fill out the questionnaires on the Internet. The data was saved on-line, and was analyzed using correlational and multivariate procedures. We hypothesized that the permissive parenting style was highly correlated with high scores of delinquency. It was also hypothesized that the authoritative parenting style was related to low scores of delinquency. Additionally, it was hypothesized that authoritarian parenting style would fall in between permissive and authoritative in delinquency. Finally, mean difference, in delinquency scores from groups defined by parenting style were evaluated. Correlational analysis showed that there were no significant relations between permissive and authoritarian parenting styles and rate of delinquency. There was a significant inverse relation between authoritative parenting style and delinquency.