In: Psychology
What do we mean by family process and family structure and what are the impacts of family process and family structure on delinquency?
A family structure refers to the manner in which members of a single familial unit are organised. For instance, a traditional family structure in the United States is involves two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring. On the other hand, family process focuses on the pattern of dynamics that occur between the individual members. The family structure and the family process have an impact on delinquency. When adolescents do not have positive relationships with their parents, they are much more likely to experience conflict with them, become rebellious and engage in delinquent activities. Furthermore, parental processes such as supervision, control, monitoring and support can have a favourable impact on reducing the likelihood of delinquency. To a large degree, family processes are impacted by the family structure. For instance, a single parent family compared to a joint family may have completely different styles of interaction between a child and a parent. However, it had been observed that delinquency is linked to families with single parents.