Linked lives: the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology,  April, 2003  by Terence P. Thornberry,  Adrienne Freeman-Gallant,  Alan J. Lizotte,  Marvin D. Krohn,  Carolyn A. Smith

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INTRODUCTION

There is a strong commonsense notion of intergenerational continuity in behavior. Children are often presumed to take after their parents, a notion reflected in many adages: "The apple never falls far from the tree," "Cut from the same cloth," and "Like father, like son' to mention a few. The assumption of intergenerational continuity in behavior, including antisocial behavior, also pervades the scientific literature. Intergenerational continuities have been suggested and observed for a variety of behaviors, including aggression (Doumas, Margolin, & John, 1994; Huesmann, Eron, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1984), alcohol and drug use (Velleman, 1992), family violence (Fagan, Hansen, & Stewart, 1983), criminal history (Farrington, Jolliffe, Loeber, Stouthamer-Loeber, & Kalb, 2001; Farrington, Lambert, & West, 1998), and child abuse (Widom, 1989).

Despite the plausibility of intergenerational continuities in behavior, there is surprisingly little research that prospectively traces the life course of adjacent generations to see if parents who are antisocial also have children who are antisocial. There is even less information about the causal processes that might account for any observed level of intergenerational continuity. In this paper we examine whether a parent's involvement in antisocial behavior during adolescence increases the risk that his or her children will also become involved in antisocial behavior. If it does, we examine potential mediators that may account for how their lives become bound together in this fashion. We also examine whether there are differences in the mediating pathways for mothers and fathers, because much less is known about the impact of fathers on their children's development.

To examine these issues, we use data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), a multigenerational, prospective investigation of child development and antisocial behavior. The study began in 1988 with an initial sample of 1,000 adolescents (mean age = 13.5) who were interviewed for a total of 12 assessments between then and 1997. These participants are referred to as Generation 2 (G2). In 11 of the 12 assessments, a parent was also interviewed; they are referred to as Generation 1 (G1). In 1999 we began following G2's oldest biological child, Generation 3 (G3), with annual assessments. As a result, the Rochester project has long-term prospective data on three generations of the same families that allow us to examine a variety of hypotheses about intergenerational processes.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Our conceptual framework for examining these issues is derived from a general life-course perspective on human development (Elder, 1985, 1997) and, in particular, from interactional theory's explanation for antisocial behavior (Thornberry, 1987; Thornberry & Krohn, 2001). A central theme of the life-course perspective is that of interdependent or linked lives. Human development takes place in the context of intertwined social relationships and the shape of one's life course is influenced by the shape of the life courses of others. 'Actors do not behave or decide as atoms outside a social context... Their attempts at purposive action are instead embedded in concrete, ongoing systems of social relations" (Granovetter, 1985, p. 487).

One of the most intimate and influential of these relationships is that between parent and child. As Glenn Elder has noted, "Each generation is bound to fateful decisions and events in the other's life course" (1985, p. 40). Events like catastrophic illness, drug addiction, and divorce not only affect the individual and his or her spouse, but ripple out to affect both younger and older generations. For any focal individual, for example, heavy involvement in antisocial behavior and drug use potentially impacts both the person's parents and children.

Although the concept of linked lives refers to reciprocal influences between individuals, for example, between parent and child, in this paper we are particularly interested in one of these directions, the impact of parental behavior on the child's development. We investigate whether and how "fateful decisions and events" that have shaped the parent's life course ripple out to affect the development of their children.

The full explanation of how G2's involvement in antisocial behavior influences G3's involvement is obviously complex. Explanations range from genetic models in which there is direct transmission of risk from parent to child to shared-environment models in which the behavioral similarity is spurious, produced by each generation responding to similar environmental stimuli. Testing the full range of these possible influences is virtually impossible at the current time, and beyond the scope of the present analysis. Our approach, therefore, is more focused. We start with a core part of interactional theory's model of antisocial behavior that has been shown to be predictive of delinquency and other problem behaviors within a generation. We then develop an intergenerational extension of that model and test it, using data from the Rochester study. The core model we examine is presented in Fig. 1.