Parenting Practices, Self-Control and Anti-Social Behaviors: Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling

This study aims to clarify the nexus between effective parenting practices, low self-control, and anti-social behaviors in Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime. The analysis included 72 articles reporting 255 effect sizes (N = 94,604). We used the method of Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling to test the assumptions of GTC. In this regard, we employed Two-Stage meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling and One Stage Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling to perform MASEM and its moderators. The results of the MASEM of our structural model revealed that low self-control was a positive and significant determinant of anti-social behaviors. Effective parenting practices negatively and significantly affected low self-control. We observed that effective parenting practice has significantly negative direct and indirect effects on anti-social behaviors. That is, low self-control partially mediated the relationship between effective parenting practices and anti-social behaviors. Consistent with the construct of aggregated effective parenting practices, we found uniform patterns for models performed across the elements of effective parenting practices (i.e., emotionally supportive practices, monitoring, recognition, and effective discipline) with low self-control and anti-social behaviors. The result of moderator analyses showed that the association between low self-control and anti-social behaviors tended to be stronger when the individualistic score of countries improved.
We hypothesized:
1. Negative effects of effective parenting practices on low self-control,
and positive effects of low self-control on anti-social behaviors.
2. Negative effects of effective parenting practices and their elements
(i.e., emotionally supportive practices, monitoring, recognition, and
effective discipline) would significantly affect anti-social behaviors
after controlling for the effect of low self-control. In other words, the
effect of effective parenting practices and their elements would both
directly influence anti-social behaviors as well as indirectly influence
it via low self-control (i.e., the relationship between effective parenting
practices and their elements with anti-social behaviors is partially
mediated by low self-control).
3. The relationship among effective parenting practices, low self-control,
and anti-social behaviors, in model representing the data best,
is invariant according to mean age, individualism score, female percentage,
kinds of anti-social behavior, mode of assessment, self-control
measurements, and the kind of design that data was extracted from.

本研究旨在阐明有效育儿实践、低自我控制与犯罪学中 Gottfredson 和 Hirschi 的犯罪一般理论中的反社会行为之间的联系。分析纳入了72篇文章，报告了255个效应量（N = 94,604）。我们采用元分析结构方程模型的方法来检验犯罪一般理论（GTC）的假设。在此方面，我们采用了两阶段元分析结构方程模型和单阶段元分析结构方程模型来执行MASEM及其调节因素。我们结构模型的MASEM结果表明，低自我控制是反社会行为的正向且显著的决定因素。有效的育儿实践对低自我控制产生负向且显著的负面影响。我们观察到，有效的育儿实践对反社会行为具有显著的直接和间接的负面影响。也就是说，低自我控制部分地调节了有效育儿实践与反社会行为之间的关系。与有效育儿实践的聚合结构相符，我们发现，在有效育儿实践各要素（即情感支持性实践、监督、认可和有效纪律）与低自我控制及反社会行为之间，模型表现出了统一的模式。调节因素分析的结果显示，当国家的个人主义得分提高时，低自我控制与反社会行为之间的关联性往往更强。我们提出了以下假设：1. 有效育儿实践对低自我控制的负面影响，以及低自我控制对反社会行为的正面影响。2. 有效育儿实践及其要素（即情感支持性实践、监督、认可和有效纪律）在控制低自我控制效应后，对反社会行为产生显著的负面影响。换句话说，有效育儿实践及其要素不仅会直接影响反社会行为，还会通过低自我控制间接影响它（即有效育儿实践及其要素与反社会行为之间的关系部分由低自我控制调节）。3. 在代表数据最佳模型的框架中，有效育儿实践、低自我控制与反社会行为之间的关系，根据平均年龄、个人主义得分、女性比例、反社会行为种类、评估方式、自我控制测量以及数据提取的设计类型等方面均保持不变。