Teens who live with just one parent are more likely to engage in “delinquent” behavior — even when a step-parent is in the home, according to a new study.
Academics in Sweden studied surveys of 14- and 15-year-olds in different life situations, including living with both parents, a single parent and a step-parent.
Some of the youths had been involved in a variety of crimes ranging in severity from graffiti to robbery and carrying a knife as a weapon.
Adolescents living in single father, single mother, father-stepmother and mother-stepfather households reported more crime than those living with both parents, the researchers found.
The study authors emphasized that a teenager who only lives with one of their biological parents does not necessarily mean that they are delinquent.
Since they examined results from Swedish teenagers over a fairly narrow age range, further research may be needed.
According to the study, teenagers who live in single-parent families are more likely to engage in “delinquent” behavior such as shoplifting and graffiti
DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR
Self-reported crime was defined as any of the following things committed in the last 12 months:
– To hit someone
– Robbed someone
– Carried a knife as a weapon when going out
– Shoplifting
– Bike stolen
– Something stolen from someone’s pocket or bag
– 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 Malmö, Sweden.
‘This study shows that it is important to move towards using more detailed categorizations of family structure in relation to crime,’ the paper states.
“We need to expand our knowledge of the group of young people who are switching between parents.”
Previous studies have shown that non-living in both parents is positively associated with criminal behavior.
However, these were “greatly simplified” by, for example, only comparing life with both parents with life without both parents.
For the new study, the researchers considered the broader life circumstances of teenagers who did not live with both parents.
They distinguished between teenagers living in either “symmetrical” or “asymmetrical” family relationships.
Symmetrical family relationships are those in which both parents are single or both parents have a new partner.
“Asymmetric” family arrangements, on the other hand, are those in which either the mother or father, but not both, have a new partner.
For the study, the behaviors defined as criminals ranged in severity from graffiti to robbery and carrying a knife as a weapon
The researchers used data from four cross-sectional surveys conducted in southern Sweden between 2016 and 2019, involving a total of 3,838 adolescents aged 14 to 15.
The surveys were conducted at 17 secondary schools in eight small municipalities in the county of Skåne, Sweden’s southernmost province, with a population of around 1.4 million.
The data included self-reported information on nine offending behaviors — including shoplifting, graffiti, robbing someone, and carrying a knife when away from home — as well as detailed family structure.
Compared to adolescents who lived with both their mother and father, delinquent behavior was more common among those living with a single father, single mother, father and stepmother, or mother and stepfather.
Across all participants, teens in symmetric families—where the parents are separated and share custody but both are single or both have new partners—generally reported lower crime rates than teens in asymmetric families.
However, the experts also found that many of the associations between family structure and crime decreased when adjusted for data on parental attachment and surveillance.
Researchers admit they didn’t prove causality in their study — in other words, they didn’t show that certain family structures cause crime and others don’t.
Another limitation is that the study sample of teenagers came from only one Swedish country; Further research would ideally involve a much larger sample.
Overall, the authors conclude that a more accurate categorization of family structure can shed light on the contributing factors to delinquency.
GIRLS WITH SINGLE PARENTS HAVE HIGHER OBESITY: 2017 STUDY
A 2017 study found that girls living with single parents are twice as likely to be obese as their peers living in two-parent households.
Researchers from QIMR Berghofer in Brisbane, Australia, found that girls aged 12 to 17 in a single-parent home were more likely to eat an unhealthy diet.
It was also found that these girls tend to “spend more time in sedentary behaviors”, which also contributes to the higher risk of obesity.
Low education and avoidance of sports contributed to obesity among all young girls in the adolescent age group, regardless of their living situation.
And girls whose parents didn’t have college degrees were significantly more likely to be obese.
Their risk only increased if they lived in a single-parent household, making them three times more likely to become obese.
The study found that, surprisingly, junk food was not a major cause of obesity in adolescent girls.
However, it has been found that junk food and regular consumption of take-out meals are the main reasons boys aged 5 to 11 are obese.
Prepackaged foods or fried foods such as burgers, pizza, sausage rolls and fries have been considered “take-out foods” in research.
The study also found that boys whose parents did not attend college were twice as likely to be obese.
And as with girls, research found that boys who avoided exercise were also at risk of gaining excess weight.
The Brisbane facility studied the different causes of obesity in young and adolescent boys and girls and surveyed the parents of 3,500 children.
Four percent of girls aged 12 to 17 were obese, a lower number than both boys in the same age group and younger girls.
Seven percent of boys aged 12 to 17 were obese, five percent less than boys aged five to 11 and four percent less than girls aged five to 11.
Professor Peter O’Rourke, chief biostatistician at QIMR Berghofer, said more research is needed to find out why girls with single parents are more likely to be obese.
But he added that parents need to focus on the things they can easily change, like diet and exercise.
“While some factors are beyond parents’ control, the best thing they can do is encourage regular exercise,” he said.
O’Rourke also recommended that parents eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and limit the number of take-out meals at the dinner table.