OLDER RELATIVES RAISING ADOLESCENTS: THE

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE OF CAREGIVER AND YOUTH

DELINQUENT ACTS

BYLYNN FREDERICK

Relevant Question

Do grandparents or older caregivers of youth have sufficient physical and social resources to provide what research says is needed to help the youth for whom they care to ameliorate delinquent behavior?

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

LIFE COURSE THEORY: LIFE TAKES PLACE IN STAGES-DISRUPTION AT ONE STAGE MAY NEGATIVELY EFFECT LATER STAGES-BOTH POPULATIONS IN THE STUDY ARE EXPERIENCING THIS.

GRANDPARENT CAREGIVERS TAKING ON A ROLE THAT IS OUT OF SEQUENCE, INCONGRUENT WITH OTHER ASPECTS OR REALMS OF THEIR LIVES.

YOUTH ARE OFTEN VICTIMS OF PRIOR TRAUMA AND ARE MOVED OUT OF THE PARENTAL HOME.

CRIME IN THE LIFE COURSE THEORY ASSERTS THAT DISRUPTIONS IN THE LIFE COURSE EFFECT INIITIATION, PERSISTENCE AND DESISTENCE OF CRIME.

Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: Adolescents being raised by grandparents are more likely to engage in delinquent acts than adolescents being raised by parents.

Hypothesis 2: Adolescents being raised by caregivers who are 55 and over are more likely to engage in delinquent acts than those raised by those under 55.

Hypothesis 3: Respondents raised by caregivers under age 45 are more likely to engage in delinquent acts.

AGING RESEARCH

Majority of Elderly (65+) Well and Performing Daily Living Tasks Independently

Many Suffer from Chronic Illnesses-Arthritis, 48%; Hypertension, 37%; Heart Disease, 30% (AARP 1993)

Some Evidence That Grandparent’s Health Status May Jeopardize Quality of Life of Both Grandparent and Youth (Whitley et al. 2001)

Decline in Financial, Transportation, Housing Resources

Women More Likely to be Caregivers of Young and Old Than Men

Co-occurrence of These May Lead to Elevated Stress Level

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY RESEARCH

J. D. is Multi-Determined Through the Reciprocal Interplay of Individual Youth and Key Social Systems in Which They are Embedded-Based on Findings from 50+ Years of Research (Elliott et al. 1985).

A Small percentage are serious delinquents or persist in delinquency. These are often the early starters with early serious delinquency (Moffitt 1993).

Gang members are involved in a high percentage of the delinquent acts committed and youth decrease or desist delinquency when gang membership ends (Thornberry 1997).

Grouping Antisocial Youth Together is Harmful as it Leads to an Increase in Negative Behavior (Dishion 1999)

Literature on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

5.4 Million children live in households headed by a grandparent

2% of all children are cared for by a grandparent with no parent present (Census 1998)

For 1.3 Million children, a grandparent is their caregiver (Minkler 2002)

1990-1998 50% increase in children being raised by their grandparents

One in ten grandparents raise a grandchild for six months or more

The Children: -46% African American -42% Caucasian -12% Hispanic(Minkler 2002)

Most do well under the care of grandparent: health, behavior in school, not academically per grandparent report (Solomon and Marx 1995).

A Later study showed youth in relative care were more likely to be suspended from school, regardless of family income status, than children in parent care (Billing et al. 2002) .

Unpublished research using a more objective measurement tool than grandparent report shows that well-being of youth varies with the well-being of the grandparent (Smith 2009).

Youth in kin care have a much greater likelihood of having experienced trauma prior to living with kin (Billing et al. 2002).

REASONS WHY YOUTH LIVE WITH PERSONS OTHER THAN

PARENTS Parental substance abuse is the most common

reason for kin assuming care of a child Other parental related reasons:-child abuse/neglect-abandonment-financial-including unemployment, housing-divorce-poor health or death (AIDS a factor)-incarceration (6-fold increase for women 1980-

1999 attributed to drug crimes (Minkler 2002)

THE CAREGIVERS Typical Caregiver: -Median age 59, over half over 60, modestly above

poverty, married, White (Minkler 2002)

African Americans, poor have an increasing likelihood of taking on this role (Chalfie 1994; Fuller-Thomson 1997; Harden 1997).

Older African American caregivers may be even more challenged in caring for their grandchildren due to poorer health status (Whitley et al. 2001).

Kin caregivers more likely to report symptoms of poor mental health than parent caregivers (Billing et al. 2002).

Younger grandparent caregivers experience high levels of stress (Minkler et al. 1997; Fuller-Thompson et al. 1997; Szinovacz et al. 1999; Burnette 1999; Kelley et al. 2000).

Official kin foster caregivers are more likely to be older, poor, less educated and single than non-kin foster caregivers (Geen 2004).

DISSERTATION

Existing data from WAVE I of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994): nationally representative, largest and most comprehensive study of adolescents ever conducted, used by 1000 researchers, 3500 publications.

Adolescents in grades 7-12

Includes responses of adolescents to questions related to their level of delinquent acts and demographic data about the youth and family

The dependent variables are 1)Commission of a violent delinquent act 2)Commission of a non-violent delinquent act (AddHealth included questions about commission of fifteen delinquent acts.)

The independent variables are: 1) Caregiver aged 55 and over 2) Caregiver aged under 45 3) Relationship of caregiver to youth (grandparent)

REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

Table 3.1 Youth Being Raised Solely by Grandparent(s)___________ AddHealth Public Use Data Base Population US Youth

122 (Out of N= 6504) 1.9% 2%*

*Per Population Profile of the United States, US Census, 1999

Table 3.2_AddHealth Control Variables andCorresponding Late Age (12-14) Strong/Moderate/Weak Risk Factors for Onset of Violence/Drug

Use/Delinquency AddHealth Surgeon General

Report*** Variable Topics Strong Risk Factors (See Family, School, Peer Variables) Weak Conventional Ties Type of Influence of Best Friend, Prosoc.Act. Antisocial Peers None Gang Member

Moderate Risk Factors Non-Violent Delinquent Acts* General Offenses Violent Delinquent Acts**

Weak Risk Factors People Dislike You, People Unfriendly Aggression Poor Acad. Achieve/Grades, Repeated Grade School

Attitude/Performance Mom/Dad-Close/Cared, Parent Conflict Parent-Child Relations Learning Disabled, Recent Counseling Psychological Conditions Gender Gender-Male Peo. Know/Lookout for each other, Tell Parents if Youth in Trouble Neighborhood Disorganization Drugs a Problem in Neighborhood Neighborhood/Drugs

Crime None Antisocial

Attitudes/Beliefs Non-violent Delinquent Acts Problem Behavior Youth is Mentally Retarded IQ Number of Caregivers Broken Home Caregiver Income, Enough $ to Pay Bills Low Family SES Youth Violence Victim Child Abuse

________________________________________________________________

CONTINUED

*In Violent Delinquency Model **In the Non-violent Delinquency Model ***From: Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General

(2001). Since the respondents were older adolescents and data about their early childhood was not generally available, Late Age (12-14) risk factors were used as a guide for control variable selection. This study did not attempt to assess all buffering factors per se. Academic/school related variables were used in the models for predicting non-violent and violent delinquency by respondents and concrete data was available to measure academic achievement and connection with school. IQ data was not available. Substance abuse has the same predictors as delinquency.

METHODOLOGY

BIVARIATE ANALYSES1) Youth commission of a violent delinquent

act by relationship to caregiver2) Youth commission of a non-violent

delinquent act by relationship to caregiver3) Youth commission of a violent delinquent

act by age of caregiver4) Youth commission of a non-violent

delinquent act by age of caegiver

BASIC LOGISTIC REGRESSION MODELS:

1) Basic logistic regression model predicting

youth commission of a violent delinquent act

2) Basic logistic regression model predicting a non-violent delinquent act

FULLY SPECIFIED MODELS

1) Multivariate Logistic Regression Model Predicting Violent Delinquency

2) Multivariate Logistic Regression Model Predicting Non-violent Delinquency

BIVARIATE ANALYSES

TABLE 4.1 Youth Reporting Commission of a Violent Delinquent Act In the Past Year By Relationship To Caregiver

Sample Size PercentTotal 6314No 2624 42.07Yes 3690 57.93Grandp. Total 123No 59 46.01Yes 64 53.99Other Total 107No 48 43.21Yes 59 56.79Parent Total 6084No 3583 58.40Yes 2501 41.60

P-value .0019 Chi Sq. 12.56

BIVARIATE ANALYSES

TABLE 4.2 Youth Reporting Commission a Non-Violent Delinquent Act In the Past Year By Relationship to Caregiver

Sample Size Percent Total 6311 100No 1731 27.47Yes 4580 72.53Grandp. Total 122No 35 25.84Yes 87 74.16Other Total 108No 26 24.99Yes 82 75.01Parent Total 6081No 1670 27.54Yes 4411 72.46

P-value .8059; Chi Square .43

BIVARIATE ANALYSES

Table 4.3 Youth Reporting Having Committed a Violent Delinquent Act In the Past Year By Age of Caregiver

Sample Size Percent

Total 5563No 3230

57.56Yes 2333

42.44

<45 Total 3902No 2218

56.33Yes 1684

43.67

45-54 Total 1468No 905

61.47Yes 563

38.53

55 & Over Total 193No 107

54.48Yes 86

45.52

P-Value .0102; Chi Square 4.59

BIVARIATE ANALYSES

Table 4.4 Non-Violent Delinquent Act In the Past Year By Age of CaregiverTotal 5563No 155927.97Yes 400472.03<45 years Total 3901No 111428.79Yes 278771.2145-54 Total 1469No 38525.50Yes 108474.5055& over 193No 6028.97Yes 133 71.03

P Value .1047 Chi Square Test 2.26

BASIC LOGISTIC REGRESSION:VIOLENT

DELINQUENCYTable 4.5 Basic Logistic Regression Model Predicting

Youth Commission of a Violent Delinquent Act

Independent Variable Coeff. P-Value

Grandparent .58 .0224*

Other .64 .0086**

<45 .22 .0025**

55 & over .11 .5794

*P=<.05, **P=<.01, ***P=<.001

BASIC LOGISTIC REGRESSION: NONVIOLENT DELINQUENCY

Table 4.6 Basic Logistic Regression Model Predicting Youth Commission of a Non-violent Delinquent Act

Independent Variable Coeff. P-Value

Grandparent .19 .4851

Other .06 .8361

<45 -.16 .0555

55& over -.24 .2376

Fully Specified Model Model Predicting Violent Delinquency: Key Independent Variables not significant

Fully Specified Model Predicting Non-violent Delinquency: Key Independent Variables Not Significant

See handouts for tables showing fully specified models

TABLE IV Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis Predicting Violent Delinquency

Conclusions and Future

There is some support for the hypothesis that youth raised by grandparents are more likely to commit a violent delinquent act

There is much more to learn about outcomes for youth raised by grandparents

Results of the study:-contribute to better understanding of the

relationship between the caregivers of youth and delinquent behavior.

-lend some support to further research on outcomes for youth cared for by grandparents