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BY LYNN FREDERICK

OLDER RELATIVES RAISING ADOLESCENTS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE OF CAREGIVER AND YOUTH DELINQUENT ACTS. BY LYNN FREDERICK. Relevant Question.

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BY LYNN FREDERICK

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  1. OLDER RELATIVES RAISING ADOLESCENTS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE OF CAREGIVER AND YOUTH DELINQUENT ACTS BY LYNN FREDERICK

  2. 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?

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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

  6. 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)

  7. 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

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

  9. 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).

  10. 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)

  11. 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).

  12. 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)

  13. 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

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

  15. 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.

  16. METHODOLOGY • BIVARIATE ANALYSES 1) Youth commission of a violent delinquent act by relationship to caregiver 2) Youth commission of a non-violent delinquent act by relationship to caregiver 3) Youth commission of a violent delinquent act by age of caregiver 4) Youth commission of a non-violent delinquent act by age of caegiver

  17. 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

  18. FULLY SPECIFIED MODELS 1) Multivariate Logistic Regression Model Predicting Violent Delinquency 2) Multivariate Logistic Regression Model Predicting Non-violent Delinquency

  19. BIVARIATE ANALYSES • TABLE 4.1 Youth Reporting Commission of a Violent Delinquent Act In the Past Year By Relationship To Caregiver Sample Size Percent Total 6314 No 2624 42.07 Yes 3690 57.93 Grandp. Total 123 No 59 46.01 Yes 64 53.99 Other Total 107 No 48 43.21 Yes 59 56.79 Parent Total 6084 No 3583 58.40 Yes 2501 41.60 P-value .0019 Chi Sq. 12.56

  20. 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 100 No 1731 27.47 Yes 4580 72.53 Grandp. Total 122 No 35 25.84 Yes 87 74.16 Other Total 108 No 26 24.99 Yes 82 75.01 Parent Total 6081 No 1670 27.54 Yes 4411 72.46 P-value .8059; Chi Square .43

  21. 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 5563 No 3230 57.56 Yes 2333 42.44 <45 Total 3902 No 2218 56.33 Yes 1684 43.67 45-54 Total 1468 No 905 61.47 Yes 563 38.53 55 & Over Total 193 No 107 54.48 Yes 86 45.52 P-Value .0102; Chi Square 4.59

  22. BIVARIATE ANALYSES Table 4.4 Non-Violent Delinquent Act In the Past Year By Age of CaregiverTotal 5563No 1559 27.97Yes 4004 72.03<45 years Total 3901 No 1114 28.79Yes 2787 71.2145-54 Total 1469 No 385 25.50Yes 1084 74.5055& over 193No 60 28.97Yes 133 71.03 P Value .1047 Chi Square Test 2.26

  23. BASIC LOGISTIC REGRESSION:VIOLENT DELINQUENCY Table 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

  24. 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

  25. 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

  26. TABLE IV Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis Predicting Violent Delinquency

  27. 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

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