Testing Whether Protective Parenting is a Causal Mediator of Intervention Effects on Decreased Delinquency Using a Randomized Prevention Trial

Overview

Journal Justice Q

Publisher Routledge

Date 2024 Nov 29

PMID 39611046

Authors

Man-Kit Lei

Steven R H Beach

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Protective parenting practices, including parental monitoring and establishing nurturing and supportive rules, are thought to affect the risk of children's involvement in delinquency. However, there has yet to be any direct test of this hypothesis using experimental data designed to test causality better. Data from 346 Black couples with an 11-year-old child were assigned randomly to Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) intervention or control condition. Results from traditional mediation models, causal mediation analysis, and the complier analysis indicated that the intervention had a significant indirect effect on youth delinquent behaviors and that effects on protective parenting mediated this effect. The results demonstrated that ProSAAF, which is designed to promote family communication, is effective in deterring delinquent behaviors among Black Americans who reside in resource-scarce communities by enhancing parenting practices.

References

Lei M, Beach S . Can We Uncouple Neighborhood Disadvantage and Delinquent Behaviors? An Experimental Test of Family Resilience Guided by the Social Disorganization Theory of Delinquent Behaviors. Fam Process. 2020; 59(4):1801-1817. PMC: 7434646. DOI: 10.1111/famp.12527. View

Rijnhart J, Valente M, Smyth H, MacKinnon D . Statistical Mediation Analysis for Models with a Binary Mediator and a Binary Outcome: the Differences Between Causal and Traditional Mediation Analysis. Prev Sci. 2021; 24(3):408-418. PMC: 9108123. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-021-01308-6. View

Marks A, Woolverton G, Garcia Coll C . Risk and Resilience in Minority Youth Populations. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2020; 16:151-163. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-071119-115839. View

Ryan R, Kalil A, Ziol-Guest K, Padilla C . Socioeconomic Gaps in Parents' Discipline Strategies From 1988 to 2011. Pediatrics. 2016; 138(6). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2016-0720. View

Stuart E, Perry D, Le H, Ialongo N . Estimating intervention effects of prevention programs: accounting for noncompliance. Prev Sci. 2008; 9(4):288-98. PMC: 2921838. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-008-0104-y. View

Racz S, McMahon R . The relationship between parental knowledge and monitoring and child and adolescent conduct problems: a 10-year update. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2011; 14(4):377-98. DOI: 10.1007/s10567-011-0099-y. View

Brody G, Yu T, Beach S . Resilience to adversity and the early origins of disease. Dev Psychopathol. 2016; 28(4pt2):1347-1365. PMC: 5079770. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579416000894. View

Lavner J, Barton A, Beach S . Direct and indirect effects of a couple-focused preventive intervention on children's outcomes: A randomized controlled trial with African American families. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2020; 88(8):696-707. PMC: 8221283. DOI: 10.1037/ccp0000589. View

Cavanagh S, Fomby P . Family Instability in the Lives of American Children. Annu Rev Sociol. 2020; 45(1):493-513. PMC: 7388657. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-soc-073018-022633. View

10.

Wills T, Gibbons F, Gerrard M, McBride Murry V, Brody G . Family communication and religiosity related to substance use and sexual behavior in early adolescence: a test for pathways through self-control and prototype perceptions. Psychol Addict Behav. 2003; 17(4):312-23. DOI: 10.1037/0893-164X.17.4.312. View

11.

Barton A, Beach S, Wells A, Ingels J, Corso P, Sperr M . The Protecting Strong African American Families Program: a Randomized Controlled Trial with Rural African American Couples. Prev Sci. 2018; 19(7):904-913. PMC: 6177321. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-018-0895-4. View

12.

ORourke H, MacKinnon D . Reasons for Testing Mediation in the Absence of an Intervention Effect: A Research Imperative in Prevention and Intervention Research. J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2018; 79(2):171-181. PMC: 6019768. DOI: 10.15288/jsad.2018.79.171. View

13.

Valeri L, VanderWeele T . Mediation analysis allowing for exposure-mediator interactions and causal interpretation: theoretical assumptions and implementation with SAS and SPSS macros. Psychol Methods. 2013; 18(2):137-50. PMC: 3659198. DOI: 10.1037/a0031034. View

14.

Ashworth E, Panayiotou M, Humphrey N, Hennessey A . Game On-Complier Average Causal Effect Estimation Reveals Sleeper Effects on Academic Attainment in a Randomized Trial of the Good Behavior Game. Prev Sci. 2020; 21(2):222-233. PMC: 6987066. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-019-01074-6. View

15.

MacKinnon D, Warsi G, Dwyer J . A Simulation Study of Mediated Effect Measures. Multivariate Behav Res. 2010; 30(1):41. PMC: 2821114. DOI: 10.1207/s15327906mbr3001_3. View

16.

Hesser H . Identifying causal mechanisms in psychotherapy: What can we learn from causal mediation analysis?. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2021; 29(3):1050-1058. DOI: 10.1002/cpp.2687. View

17.

McAdams T, Rijsdijk F, Narusyte J, Ganiban J, Reiss D, Spotts E . Associations between the parent-child relationship and adolescent self-worth: a genetically informed study of twin parents and their adolescent children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016; 58(1):46-54. PMC: 5215430. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12600. View

18.

Beach S, Barton A, Lei M, Mandara J, Wells A, Kogan S . Decreasing Substance use Risk among African American Youth: Parent-based Mechanisms of Change. Prev Sci. 2016; 17(5):572-83. PMC: 5480376. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-016-0651-6. View

19.

Brody G, McBride Murry V, Gerrard M, Gibbons F, Molgaard V, McNair L . The Strong African American Families Program: translating research into prevention programming. Child Dev. 2004; 75(3):900-17. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00713.x. View

20.

Hoeve M, Dubas J, Eichelsheim V, van der Laan P, Smeenk W, Gerris J . The relationship between parenting and delinquency: a meta-analysis. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2009; 37(6):749-75. PMC: 2708328. DOI: 10.1007/s10802-009-9310-8. View