Trajectories of Parenting Styles and Delinquency: An Examination Using a Sample of African-Americans

The development of parenting style typologies has led to a number of studies that have linked them to delinquency. Although a number of studies have shown that parenting style typologies have a link with delinquency, studies have not shown whether there were distinct trajectories of parenting styles and delinquency. These studies have not considered this in a sample of only African-Americans. Using data from the NLSY97 that only contains 725 African- Americans, our results show that three distinct trajectory groups of parenting styles are present for residential mothers and for residential fathers. In addition, we show that three distinct trajectory groups of delinquency are present. Our results show that a joint analysis of the intersection of these trajectories does not clarify the links between parenting styles and delinquency over time. Implications and directions for future research are highlighted.