Poverty, Parenting, Peer, and Neighborhood Influences on Young Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

Data from a sample of 963, 10- to 12-year-old children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were used to evaluate the parenting practices and environmental influences that explain the relation between poverty and antisocial behavior two years later. Results indicate that deviant peer pressure and neighborhood problems partially mediate the relation between poverty and young adolescent antisocial behavior. The parenting practices and environmental influences that predict antisocial behavior do not vary by the child's gender or race/ethnicity, and vary little by the child's age. Findings suggest that when environmental risk is high, authoritarian parenting strategies result in lower levels of antisocial behavior.