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Do Historical Changes in Parent–Child Relationships Explain Increases in Youth Conduct Problems?

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Abstract

The coincidence of historical trends in youth antisocial behavior and change in family demographics has led to speculation of a causal link, possibly mediated by declining quality of parenting and parent–child relationships. No study to date has directly assessed whether and how parenting and parent–child relationships have changed. Two national samples of English adolescents aged 16–17 years in 1986 (N = 4,524 adolescents, 7,120 parents) and 2006 (N = 716 adolescents, 734 parents) were compared using identical questionnaire assessments. Youth-reported parental monitoring, expectations, and parent–child quality time increased between 1986 and 2006. Ratings of parental interest did not change. Parenting differences between affluent and disadvantaged families narrowed over time. There was thus little evidence of a decline in quality of parenting for the population as a whole or for disadvantaged subgroups. Parent-reported youth conduct problems showed a modest increase between 1986 and 2006. Findings suggested that the increase in youth conduct problems was largely unrelated to observed change in parent–child relationships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section and MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetic and Genomics, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Heath, 4th Floor, Cardiff, CF14 4XN, UK

    Stephan Collishaw

  2. Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Frances Gardner

  3. MRC Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London, UK

    Barbara Maughan

  4. Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Jacqueline Scott

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London, UK

    Andrew Pickles

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  1. Stephan Collishaw
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  2. Frances Gardner
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  3. Barbara Maughan
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  4. Jacqueline Scott
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  5. Andrew Pickles
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephan Collishaw.

Additional information

This research was supported by a Nuffield Foundation grant to FG, BM, SC and JS, and by a Nuffield Foundation New Career Development Fellowship to SC and AP. BM is supported by the Medical Research Council. SC is supported by the Waterloo Foundation. We are grateful to Ann Hagell for many helpful suggestions, the UK data archive for providing access to the 1970 British Cohort Study, the UK Department of Health for allowing us to re-contact participants of the Health Surveys for England, and to the National Centre for Social Research for undertaking the 2006 fieldwork.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary Table 1

1986 sample (BCS70): Profile of age 16 responders in relation to characteristics at birth and at age 10. Efficacy of weights in correcting known biases due to attrition (PDF 21 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

2006 sample (HSE 2002/3 follow-up): Profile of age 16/17 responders in relation to characteristics at age 11–14. Efficacy of weights in correcting known selective attrition biases (PDF 20 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Cross-sectional and predictive associations of parenting measures with youth conduct disorder (2+ symptoms) and adult crime for BCS70 cohort (PDF 31 kb)

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Collishaw, S., Gardner, F., Maughan, B. et al. Do Historical Changes in Parent–Child Relationships Explain Increases in Youth Conduct Problems?. J Abnorm Child Psychol 40, 119–132 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9543-1

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