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

This dataset 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.