Adolescents at Risk of Delinquency. The Role of Parental Control, Trust, and Disclosure

Abstract

This study investigates the role of parental control, trust, and disclosure as protective factors on individual and peer-group delinquency in a sample of 1420 Italian high school students aged from 14 to18 (Mage = 15.59, SDage = 1.17), representative of the adolescent student population in Rimini (57.3% males and 42.7% females). A cluster analysis identified different patterns of parental monitoring, associated with different levels of involvement in individual and group delinquency during adolescence. The results showed parental trust, control, and adolescent disclosure to be inversely associated with violent behaviors. Our results challenge the assumption that greater parental control can reduce preadolescents’ antisocial behavior.