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The relationship between maternal attributes in the early life of the child and the child's future criminal behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Håkan Stattin  and
Ingrid Klackenberg-Larsson
Håkan Stattin*
Affiliation:
University of Stockholm
Ingrid Klackenberg-Larsson
Affiliation:
Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm
*
Address correspondence to: Håkan Stattin, Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
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Abstract

The relationship of various personality and behavior describing characteristics of the mother in earliest childhood (ages 1–3) and in later childhood (ages 6–8) to the child's registered criminality up to the age of 30 was investigated for a sample of 122 males. Maternal attributes were rated by psychologists and nurses. Canonical correlations, measuring the relationship between the set of maternal attributes in young age of the child and the future registered criminality of the subjects, were in the magnitudes of .40 to .50. Both in early and in later childhood, mother's mood and her perceived maturity were attributes that, controlled for socioeconomic status of the home and mother's age, were significantly related to the child's future criminal behavior. In addition, mother's affective attitude in later childhood was significantly related to registered crime among the subjects. The change in prognostic power of maternal attributes from early to later childhood was discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , April 1990 , pp. 99 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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