Predictors of late adolescent delinquency: The protective role of after-school activities in low-income families

Research suggests an important link between maternal welfare and employment, lack of after-school care, and a child's propensity to engage in increased levels of delinquency. Indeed, with welfare reform, many disadvantaged families, typically single-mother households, face increased pressures to move off of welfare and into employment or risk losing their benefits, which decreases the mother's ability to provide adequate after-school care and supervision. Using longitudinal data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, this study assessed how changes in maternal welfare and employment status, as well as participation in after-school activities influence rates of adolescents' delinquency 4 years later. Results show that early and increased participation in after-school activities served as a protective factor against late adolescent delinquency during a mother's transition off of welfare. Youth who increased their after-school activity participation from early to late adolescence had lower rates of delinquency at wave 3. Policy implications are discussed.

Research highlights► Greater delinquency linked to being male and living with distressed mother. ► Increasing adolescents' after-school involvement lowered rates of delinquency. ► Involvement moderated influence of maternal welfare transitions on delinquency. ► Decreased involvement and stable welfare receipt led to highest delinquency reports.