This paper develops an economic and social capital model linking single mothering in poverty to adolescent violence. Our model focuses on bonding social capital within parent-child relationships, negative social capital in delinquent peer groups, and bridging social capital residing in youths’ friendship networks. Our research is the first to consider that the family experiences of adolescents’ peers affect adolescent violence. We test hypotheses using the Add Health, finding that peer networks are a source of bridging social capital through which collective parenting helps explain youth violence as well as the links between family structural (dis)advantages and youth violence.
AkersR. L.JenningsW. G. (2019). The social learning theory of crime and deviance. In KrohnM.HendrixN.HallG. P.LizotteA. J. (Eds.), Handbook on crime and deviance. Handbooks of Sociology. Springer.
2.
AmatoP. R. (2001). Children of divorce in the 1990s: An update of the Amato and Keith (1991) meta-analysis. Journal of Family Psychology, 15(3), 355–370.
3.
AndersonE. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner City. W.W Norton.
4.
BronfenbrennerU.EvansG. W. (2002). Developmental science in the 21st century: Emerging questions, theoretical models, research designs and empirical findings. Social Development, 9(1), 115–125.
5.
BursikR. (1988). Social disorganization and theories of crime and delinquency: Problems and prospects. Criminology, 26(4), 519–552.
6.
CherlinA. J. (2009). The marriage-go-round: The state of marriage and the family in America today. Random House.
7.
ColemanJ. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 95–120.
8.
DaryananiI.HamiltonJ. L.AbramsonL.Y.AlloyL. B. (2016). Single mother parenting and adolescent psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 44(7), 1411–1423.
9.
De CosterS. (2012). Mothers’ work and family roles, gender ideologies, distress, and parenting: Consequences for juvenile delinquency. The Sociological Quarterly, 53(4), 585–609.
10.
De CosterS.HeimerK.WittrockS. (2006). Neighborhood disadvantage, social capital, street context, and youth violence. The Sociological Quarterly, 47(4), 723–753.
11.
DemuthS.BrownS. L. (2004). Family structure, family processes, and adolescent delinquency: The significance of parental absence versus parental gender. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 41(1), 58–51.
12.
DeutschA. R.CrockettL. J.WolffJ. M.RussellS. T. (2012). Parent and peer pathways to adolescent delinquency: Variations by ethnicity and neighborhood context. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41(8), 1078–1094.
13.
DufurM. J.HoffmannJ. P.BraudtD. B.ParcelT. L.SpenceK. R. (2015). Examining the effects of family and school social capital on delinquent behavior. Deviant Behavior, 36(7), 511–526.
EdinK. J. (2004). Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy. The Benefits of Healthy Marriage Hearing, May5.
16.
EdinK. J.KefalasM. (2011). Promises I can keep: Why poor women put motherhood before marriage. University of California Press.
17.
EdinK. J.ShaeferL. (2015). $2 a day: Living on almost nothing in America. HMH Publishers.
18.
ElliottD. A.AgetonS. S. (1980). Reconciling race and class differences in self-reported and official estimates of delinquency. American Sociological Review, 45(1), 95–110.
19.
FarnworthM.ThornberryT. P.KrohnM. D.LizotteA. J. (1994). Measurement in the study of class and delinquency: Integrating theory and research. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 31(1), 32–61.
20.
GoldsteinH. S. (1984). Parental composition, supervision, and conduct problems in youths 12 to 17 years old. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 23(6), 679–684.
21.
HayC.FortsonE. N.HollistD. R.AltheimerI.SchaibleL. M. (2006). The impact of community disadvantage on the relationship between family and juvenile crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 43(4), 326–356.
22.
HaynieD. L.OsgoodW. D. (2005). Reconsidering peers and delinquency: How do peers matter?Social Forces, 84(2), 1109–1130.
23.
HaynieD. L.PayneD. C. (2006). Race, friendship networks, and violent delinquency. Criminology, 44(4), 775–805.
24.
HeimerK.De CosterS. (1999). The gendering of violent delinquency. Criminology, 37(2), 277–318.
25.
HirschiT. (1969). Causes of delinquency. University of California Press.
26.
HoffmannJ. P. (2006). Family structure, delinquency, and community context. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(6), 867–880.
27.
HoffmannJ. P.DufurM. J. (2018). Family social capital, family social bonds, and juvenile delinquency. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(11), 1525–1544.
28.
JonesN. (2009). Between good and ghetto: African American girls and inner-city violence. Rutgers University Press.
29.
KendigS. M.BianchiS. M. (2008). Single, cohabitating, and married mothers’ time with children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 70(5), 1228–1240.
30.
KierkusC. A.HewittJ. D. (2009). The contextual nature of the family structure/delinquency relationship. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(2), 123–132.
31.
KubrinC. E.MioduszewskiM. D. (2019). Social disorganization theory: Past, present and future. In KrohnM.HendrixN.HallG. P.LizotteA. J. (Eds.), Handbook on crime and deviance. Handbooks of Sociology.
32.
LareauA. (2011). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life (2nd ed.). University of California Press.
33.
LaubJ. H.CostelloB. J. (2020). Social control theory: The legacy of Travis Hirschi’s causes of delinquency. Annual Review of Criminology, 3, 21–41.
34.
LeiberM. J.MackK. Y.FeatherstoneR. A. (2009). Family structure, family processes, economic factors, and delinquency: Similarities and differences by race and ethnicity. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 7(2), 79–99.
35.
MatsuedaR. L. (1982). Testing control and differential association theories: A causal modeling approach. American Sociological Review, 47(4), 489–504.
36.
McCarthyB.HaganJ. (1995). Getting into street crime: The structure and process of criminal embeddedness. Social Science Research, 25(1), 63–95.
37.
McLanahanS. (2009). Fragile families and the reproduction of poverty. The Annals of the American Academy, 621(1), 111–127.
38.
McLanahanS.SandefurG. D. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Harvard University Press.
39.
NewmanK. S.MassengillR. P. (2006). The texture of hardship: Qualitative sociology of poverty, 1995-2005. Annual Review of Sociology, 32, 423–446.
40.
PutnamR. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon and Schuster.
41.
RebellonC. J. (2002). Reconsidering the broken home and delinquency relationship and exploring its mediating mechanisms. Criminology, 40(1), 103–133.
42.
RiosV. M. (2011). Punished: Policing the lives of Black and Latino boys. New York University Press.
43.
SampsonR. J. (2012). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. University of Chicago Press.
44.
SwaroopS.MorenoffJ. D. (2006). Building community: The neighborhood context of social organization. Social Forces, 84(4), 1665–1695.
45.
TouliatosJ.LindholmB. W. (1980). Birth order, family size, and children’s mental health. Psychological Reports, 46(3), 1097–1098.
46.
TourangeauR.ShinH. (1999). National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health: Grand sample weight. Carolina Population Center.
WeatherburnD.LindB. (2001). Delinquent-prone communities. Cambridge University Press.
50.
WeermanF. M.SmeenkW. H. (2005). Peer similarity in delinquency for different types of friends: A comparison using two different measurement methods. Criminology, 43(2), 499–523.
51.
WellsE. L.RankinJ. H. (1991). Families and delinquency: A meta-analysis of the impact of broken homes. Social Problems, 38(1), 71–93.
52.
WilsonW. J. (2012). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
53.
WongS. K. (2017). The effects of single-mother and single-father families on youth crime. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 50, 46–60.
