Love deprivation, Wechsler performance greater than verbal discrepancy, and violent delinquency

Cohabitation, Marriage and Delinquency: The Significance Family Environment

This paper uses Australian data to examine the relationship between parental lifestyles and family environments on the one hand, and occurrence, type and frequency of delinquency on the other. These data, collected by means of interviewing, relate to a part of a longitudinal study including 512 children; 233 were children of cohabiting couples and 279 of married couples. The findings presented in this paper show that (a) there are proportionally more offenders coming from families of cohabiting than of married couples; (b) there are proportionately more offenders who become recidivists coming from families of cohabiting than of married couples; and that (c) the family environments of the majority of offenders are marked by instability, low integration, hostile parental attitudes, domestic violence, parental conflicts and parental indifference.

Cognitive functioning, and behavioral and emotional adjustment in maltreated children post-intervention

Cognitive functioning and behavioral and emotional adjustment were examined in children who were previously maltreated as preschoolers, had received intervention in a developmentally salient day treatment program, and were either placed in adoptive families or returned to the biological family system. The children were evaluated, on average, four years postintervention. The children in this sample were as emotionally maladjusted as those in a clinical population; they experienced more anxiety and aggression. Additionally, they fared worse than clinical (and nonclinical) norms in terms of self-confidence and the adaptive ability to perceive support from others, and were comparable to the clinical group in their limited ability to reach out to others in the face of problem-resolution skills below a nonclinical level.

The PIQ greater than VIQ discrepancy in violent and nonviolent delinquents

This study found that approximately 35% of 149 juveniles convicted of serious crimes obtained a statistically significant PIQ greater than VIQ discrepancy of at least 12 IQ points. There were no significant differences in the incidence of the PIQ greater than VIQ discrepancy between juveniles convicted of violent or nonviolent crimes. The PIQ greater than VIQ discrepancy was found among both White and minority youth and among youth tested with either the WISC-R or the WAIS-R. IQ scores were correlated negatively with prior school problems, but not with measures of family dysfunction, prior criminal activity, or substance abuse. The PIQ greater than VIQ discrepancy appears to be an important indication of intellectual deficit in many delinquent youth.

Illegitimacy, child abuse and neglect, and cognitive development

This study explored the relationship between illegitimate birth and cognitive development among 513 boys on probation. Prior research has shown that being part of a single-parent household leads to diminished verbal capacities and often puts a child in greater danger of abuse and neglect. Frequent abuse is thought to lead to the enhancement of visual and spatial skills relative to verbal skills through a process of "frozen watchfulness". I hypothesized that illegitimate boys from one-parent homes would have greater verbal-performance discrepancy scores than would boys from other combinations of birth status and family structure. These boys had the lowest verbal IQ and highest performance IQ scores and, hence, the largest discrepancy. These boys also suffered the highest degree of abuse and neglect of all four birth status/family structure combinations studied.