Parental Control as a Stimulus for Youth Control: Mediating the Parental Knowledge–Child Delinquency Relationship With Cognitive Impulsivity

Abstract

Parental knowledge was investigated as a foil to reactive criminal thinking, as represented in the current study by cognitive impulsivity. Cognitive impulsivity and neutralization were tested as mediators of the parental knowledge–child delinquency relationship in 1,734 early adolescents (811 boys, 923 girls) from the Gang Resistance and Education Training (GREAT) study. A path analysis of the first three waves of GREAT data revealed that Wave 2 cognitive impulsivity but not Wave 2 neutralization techniques negatively mediated the link between Wave 1 parental knowledge and Wave 3 child delinquency. These results were replicated in variables measured at Waves 2 through 4. Parental control, in the form of parental knowledge and monitoring, may therefore prevent delinquency by countering cognitive impulsivity.