On one hand, prior research shows that single-mother families are characterized by erratic discipline and less supervision (Demuth, 65). Teenage mothers are more likely to become a single parent as well because teenage fathers are less likely to stick around. They also obtain less education and live in poverty. Further, the children of these teenage mothers were more likely to (1) be born prematurely and be of low birth weight (which increases the likelihood that they will develop traits like irritability and low self-control); (2) be physically abused, neglected, or abandoned; (3) be poorly supervised; (4) have trouble in school; and (5) become teenage mothers themselves (Agnew 257). All these traits lead up to delinquency but the father can contribute as well. The absence of the father actually reduces …show more content…
In the homes of single father families, the son is more likely to live with them. That can be one reason as to why the single fathers have the highest rates of delinquency because males have higher delinquency rates than females. Single-father families have lower levels of direct and indirect parental controls than single-mother families have, but single father families have greater income than single mother families. The single father families may have a greater income than single mothers, but it is lower than intact families and step families. The single father families have the highest rates of delinquency followed by single mothers and step parents. For families that are not intact, adolescents turn towards gangs because that seems more like a family than what they have at home. These adolescents are seeking for the feeling of a family. A recent American study of over 1700 youths found that adolescents growing up in a single-parent or step-parent family often feel estranged and consequently drift into drug use and abuse (Muehlenberg,